Our world has been upended. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel human respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first cases of COVID-19 infections surfaced in December 2019 in Wuhan city, the capital of Hubei province. Shortly after, the virus quickly spread to several countries. On January 30, 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus as a public health emergency of an international scope. Forty one days later, on March 11, 2020 it was officially declared to be a global pandemic.
Some of us have lived thorough periods of crisis and have the memory of the pain, and, most important, the recovery. This too will pass. The immediate consequence for our community is that we had to close the university and operate remotely. While we were certainly not prepared to undertake a massive online learning experience, our staff, faculty, administrators, and students have risen the challenge. We will finish our semester, and then we will reopen to operate better than before.