By Tomi Simmons
For the next couple of months, The Spectator will be producing bi-weekly interviews with President Michael Schneider and his staff. President Schneider has released several statements every Friday to the campus community with plans of action over the past weeks. As of right now he and his staff have paid close attention to the government and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s statements. The goal right now is to have a plan of action for the Fall and the first day of school, August 17. The COVID-FAQ page on McPherson College’s website is continuously updating almost every ten days.
McPherson College will continue to operate the same way until May 18, according to Governor Laura Kelly’s plan to open up Kansas (that was announced April 30, 2020). The staff at McPherson College will focus at that point to be ready for the fall semester.
On McPherson College’s social media there have been several videos posted of alumni and current students encouraging the campus community.
“Alumni were asking how they could help, and I told them that one they could give their annual gift and two they could give words of encouragement to our students,” Schneider said, “We want to create the same atmosphere on campus, online too.”
“We want to find every way we can to encourage the campus during what is really a once in a lifetime situation,” Schneider said, “one way we know we can do that is by communicating and for that to be helpful.”
The aspects of communication include encouragement, enrollment, challenges and some of them are technical to employees to explain why and how we are doing things.
President Schneider explained that the main reason for the words of encouragement are that they are, “sincere attempts to say that we miss you all.”
May 24 will be the virtual graduation for the class of 2020, more information is to come about the events.
For more information keep looking at the OVID-FAQ page and look out for emails from President Scheider.
