NWC COVID-19 March 15 update: All campus locations to close through April 3

Posted: March 15, 2020

With today’s recommendation from Governor Gordon and State Superintendent Jillian Balow that all schools remain closed to students through at least April 3, Northwest College has decided to close all campus locations to the public through Friday, April 3.  Classes are now scheduled to resume Monday, April 6; we will continue to use the coming weeks to convert classes to alternative formats so that academic learning may continue through the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester. Please read the following updates carefully to better understand what this means for you.

Employees

• Effective Monday, March 16, we are closing campus to the public through April 3; this includes the Powell campus, Hinckley Library, the Children’s Learning & Care Center, the Johnson Fitness Center and sites in both Cody and Worland. All personnel are asked to report to work on Monday morning to get further instruction.
• Only essential personnel will be asked to report to work through the duration of this closing, and are advised to adhere to the CDC’s recommendations for social-distancing. Non-essential personnel who can work from home are asked to do so, as long as they remain free of illness. You will be informed tomorrow morning which category you fall under. Please work with your supervisor to make arrangements.
• All services essential to supporting campus operations and instruction will continue until further notice; all efforts to reduce face-to-face interaction for those remaining on campus will be in effect.
• If you are sick or have any of the main symptoms associated with COVID-19 (fever, shortness of breath, or cough), you are required to stay home until fully recovered and without symptoms for at least 24 hours. If you become ill, please contact HR so that we may cover your sick leave.

Students

• All resident halls and apartments * are to close until further notice. If you currently live on campus and have nowhere else to go, arrangements will be made to accommodate you. Those currently living on campus may leave their belongings on campus until the campus reopens to retrieve them. Please await communications regarding when you can retrieve your belongings before coming to campus.
• Your academic coursework will continue April 6 in an alternative format so that you can continue your NWC education as unimpeded as possible. All in-person courses are already being converted to alternative formats; courses that cannot easily be converted will likely be rescheduled or cancelled if some other sort of accommodation cannot be arranged. Please await instructions from your professors for important details about how to continue your spring 2020 classes online.
• All on and offsite College travel, events, and conferences for students and employees through May 11 are being cancelled or postponed. Following the CDC's recommendation, the College will be canceling or postponing travel, events and conferences over the next eight weeks. Details will be announced at nwc.edu/covid-19.

NWC Pandemic Response Team

Please know that our team is working diligently to accommodate this temporary transition for our campus, and we will provide additional information as soon as possible. Please:

• read any communication from Northwest College thoroughly and completely; the answer you need may already be in the communication.
• if you have a question about specific classes, please email your instructor directly.
• if you have a question about work, please email your supervisor directly.
• if your questions are not urgent, we’d ask you to wait for further communication that may address your concerns.
• if you have an urgent question that you don’t know whom to send it to, please send it to COVID-19@nwc.edu
• continue to monitor your campus email and/or https://nwc.edu/covid-19 for future updates.

We understand there are many implications of these decisions; know that we will be working through them and will continue to communicate with our campus and our community as quickly as possible. Thank you for everything you do to make NWC such an amazing place. If we can face these challenges with determination and teamwork, we will emerge stronger than ever.

*NOTE: Trapper Village Main apartments and Trapper Village West apartments will not be closed to residents.