Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Dear Belmont College Community,

I am reaching out to you today on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Belmont College with concern for your well-being and the well-being of your families. I would like to take a moment to praise you for your dedication and service to the college community and especially to our student population. I hope and trust this letter finds you well.

The College community has been called upon in this time of pandemic to make an extraordinary effort to facilitate the continuing education of our college student community by implementing online versions of all classes practically overnight. And you have done it with expediency and grace. A most important consequence of this is to allow our students to complete this semester’s classwork and to stay on track to degree and/or certificate completion.

The Board and I commend Dr. Gasparro and his management and administrative team for taking the initiative to make the decision to close our campus buildings during this health crisis. Their leadership has helped to guide the process to enable students to complete the semester without changing the academic schedule by continuing to use the BeConnected initiative in innovative ways.

Additionally, we applaud our faculty for embracing this initiative and making it a reality. Through their concentrated efforts to move classes online and their commitment to working through issues associated with this new paradigm, they are helping to enable students to complete their classes, and for those who are candidates, to earn their degrees.

Furthermore, we acknowledge all the administrative and support staff throughout our College community who are pitching in and discovering ways to assist our students’ journey to their stated outcomes; be it extra cleaning, additional communication efforts, and/or remote ways to perform their college functions.

Every effort, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated by the Board of Trustees. We look forward to the time that we are back on campus and we can express our gratitude and admiration in person.

Respectfully yours,

Elizabeth Gates

Chair of the Board of Trustees of Belmont College