March 20, 2020
Dear Students:

As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve in our city and state, we have issued almost daily changes to the way our campus needs to operate to keep faculty, staff and students safe. I know those changes have created significant inconvenience and hardship for us all. I also know that the change and uncertainty is stressful.

I’m writing to ask for your patience and understanding and to let you know I’m in your corner. I share your frustration.

Each day, we meet with local and state officials on a coordinated response to try to slow the spread of this deadly virus. The news that we hear leads us to step up our response in different ways on an almost daily basis. No one could have anticipated this health emergency, but it is a reality that we all must work together to address, no matter what it takes, even when the changes create additional pressures on our faculty, staff and students.

So let me start by saying I truly appreciate what we’ve accomplished so far. I thank you all for embracing the move to online classrooms. I know that is not the preferred format for some of you, but for the sake of social distancing and limiting the spread of disease, you and our faculty have risen to the occasion.

We know the call to vacate on-campus housing (similar to other universities in our area) has caused serious disruption. Changes to the move-out timeline were essential to follow best advice from our state’s emergency task force and to prepare for whatever may come. For those who don’t have other places to go, we hope that you have filed an exception form to stay on campus so we can address your situation quickly. For anyone who is granted permission to stay on campus, we will make sure you continue to have housing and dining options.

Here are some of the factors driving the increased urgency across our city, state and nation:
  • Missouri and Kansas are seeing rapid increases in positive COVID-19 tests. These increases are already straining the capacity of local health-care providers. Experts expect the situation to worsen rapidly in coming days. We must do our part to help flatten the curve.

  • High-density living areas, such as residence halls, increase the risk of contact with the disease. We need to be able to distance residents from each other and to more frequently sanitize public spaces.

  • The more students who live on campus, the more staff we must have on campus as a support, which again leads to increased risk of acquiring the disease and, additionally, exposes their families to increased risk. Further, the campus has limited resources to quarantine students if that step is needed.

  • We are following the most up-to-date advice of state and local officials to minimize physical presence on our campus as a public safeguard. Every university in our metro area is following the same practices.
On a positive note, our staff have been working hard to ensure that you all can receive discounts where appropriate for residence hall and dining cancellations and parking, recreation, and other fees. A detailed note outlining all those discounts will be coming next week, so please stay tuned to your email.

We also will have staff ready to help with move-out or any other related questions or requests. We will be as flexible as we can in meeting those needs. Residential Life has distributed guidelines on how they will work with you to conduct a safe move-out process. I urge patience and kindness during that process. We’re all laboring under the enormous strain of this new COVID-19 world we live in. 

These times demand cooperation and sacrifice from us all. I know we will overcome it – and look forward to being back together again when the crisis has passed.
C. Mauli Agrawal, Ph.D.
Chancellor
University of Missouri-Kansas City | Kansas City, MO 64110 | (816) 235-1000
UMKC is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
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