April 14 Message from President Liz Maw

Dear Students,

I hope that this note finds you and your loved ones healthy. I can feel a collective restlessness growing as we all do our part to shelter in place, yet wonder when and how the transition to more mobility will occur.  And, what will the “new normal” look like?

The administration team is carefully thinking through these possibilities as well.  For example, we are making sure that our fall classrooms at Oakstop have enough room to seat people 6 feet apart, should that be required come August.  We are also continuing to invest in our online learning capabilities. This includes a new course for students on Sustainability Consulting that will roll out in a few months free of charge to any student who would like to participate.  Of course, we remain focused on delivering an excellent learning experience during the remaining two months of this semester as well.

Last week, after gathering feedback from graduating students, we made the difficult decision to postpone our June 2020 Commencement ceremony. Public health leaders continue to suggest that limitations on large gatherings will continue for an unknown period of time to safeguard health and limit the potential for spreading COVID-19.  With the continued uncertainty, we wanted to give our graduates and their families ample time to plan. I know this is a significant disappointment; however, protecting the health and safety of our community is most important at this time. Thursday, we will be meeting with graduating students to discuss options for a virtual celebration and eventual in-person commencement ceremony.

To support continuing students, we have been putting a process in place to ensure that students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, via job loss or otherwise, are able to continue their studies with PGS next fall. While we as a school are operating under a tight budget, we are pushing ourselves as hard as possible to find and identify opportunities to support our student community. Please keep your eyes open for an email from Diana Asaad in the next week on our process for Need-Based Scholarships for next school year.

I am thinking of all of you and miss seeing your faces and smiles at Residency.  I’m looking forward to joining this Friday’s Student Rep Town Hall from 6:00 – 7:30 pm, along with other senior administrators at PGS. Please refer to the Google Student Life Calendar for the Zoom link.  We will use the time to answer your questions and engage in dialogue about anything on your mind.

Hope to see you Friday,

Liz