COVID-19 Update: "Stay Home, Stay Safe" Extended

April 9, 2020

Dear friends,

This afternoon, Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe.” Executive Order to be in effect through April 30, 2020.

This new Executive Order 2020-42 (COVID-19) extends the requirements for Michiganders to shelter in place in their homes unless they are a part of the critical infrastructure workforce, engaged in an outdoor activity, or performing tasks necessary to the health and safety of themselves or their family, such as going to the hospital or grocery store.

This Executive Order takes effect on April 9, 2020, at 11:59 p.m., and continues through April 30, 2020, at 11:59 p.m.

I want to thank each one of you as you’ve sought to understand and support Governor Whitmer’s Executive Order from March 24 and the University in our intentional efforts to support this Order. As you’ve perhaps followed in recent news reports, our state’s efforts to stay at home, practice social distancing and more have been helpful in slowing the spread of this virus in our state and flattening the curve of confirmed cases and deaths from the disease. However, even with those efforts, the outsized level of confirmed cases and deaths in our sister cities in Michigan like Detroit are heartbreaking to learn about.

As a reminder, in addition to the “Stay Home, Stay Safe.” Executive Order, Governor Whitmer has also suspended in-person teaching in elementary and secondary schools for the remainder of this school year. This has impacted both of our University schools, Andrews Academy and Ruth Murdoch Elementary School, which are offering remote learning to their students for the remainder of this school year.

This extended Michigan State “shelter-in-place” Executive Order means that our goal as a University remains to work remotely and from our homes as much as possible. Only faculty and staff who have been identified as essential and have letters from HR should be accessing the campus for work.

However, our campus will also continue to rely on our own essential workers who provide critical services/operations for our physical campus. We continue to be most grateful for the work that each of these employees offers to our Andrews community. I’m also thankful for those who are working in new (and perhaps unfamiliar) ways from your own homes; you, too, are directly helping to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our state, our communities, and in the neighborhoods where we live.

Please continue to consult our Andrews University COVID-19 page, including its section on working remotely, for guidelines and updates on these and other issues. As I’ve shared before, we will continue to use that page as a way to share official updates and COVID-19 relevant information. Also, our “Need to Know” newsletter, published each Monday in the upcoming weeks, will continue to be used to summarize and share the most relevant and current information on the impact of COVID-19 on Andrews University.

Once more, we as a campus community continue to join with our larger Andrews University family, with our brothers and sisters around the world, to pray deeply for one another as our world struggles to understand, slow and ultimately stop this pandemic’s spread. We also pray urgently for those who directly provide care for those who are suffering from this disease, and those prayers are woven through with mourning for those who have lost those they love to this virus.

Sincerely,

Andrea Luxton
President