Bates Community -
The shelter-in-place restrictions continue and the Bates community is asked to stay indoors and lock doors. The situation continues to be serious and we need to protect ourselves and help law enforcement by staying indoors and off the roads.
We continue to emphasize the resources available to students and employees. For students who are on campus, we acknowledge the challenges of this ask for you, too, and the uncertainty of being asked to stay in your residences. Students who need support should reach out to Counseling and Psychological Services, the Multifaith Chaplaincy, and/or their Student Support Advisor. For employees, the Employee Assistance Program is available by calling 1-888-238-6232 at any time. Additionally, please see additional critical incident resources on the HR Homepage.
A few other items of note this afternoon based on questions and concerns:
- We hope to provide predictable updates tonight and tomorrow. We anticipate sending further updates at approximately 9:00 p.m. tonight and 5:30 a.m. tomorrow, although we may, of course, provide other updates should they be warranted.
- Employees will be paid their regular schedule for the time the college was closed during the lockdown. Note that I received offers from employees who were willing to give PTO to ensure our staff are paid - our community is tremendous.
- emergency.bates.edu has all the emergency messages we’ve shared and has a translation feature available in the top right hand corner.
- Certain buildings on campus do not yet have steam heat and repairs that were underway on Wednesday were unable to be completed. Facility Services is working with our vendor to get them back on site as soon as possible when the lockdown is lifted. The buildings with limited heat are: Alumni and Merrill Gym, Underhill Arena, Lane Hall, Hathorn Hall, Pettigrew Hall, Schaeffer Theatre, Roger Williams Hall, Hedge Hall, Muskie Archive, Gray Cage, Coram Hall, Cutten Maintenance Center, Dining Commons.
- Facility Services will empty trash as quickly as possible as soon as the shelter-in-place order is lifted. Students, please help us and you by cleaning up after yourself in your housing environment, being tidy with food containers and, where possible, using centralized trash rooms.
Finally, we have received some inquiries about the dining plan for tomorrow. Please know that we are working on that plan right now and we will include that information in the 9:00 p.m.message tonight or the 5:30 a.m. message tomorrow morning. Given that many of our staff are unable to come to campus at this time, the dining plan will entail limited hours, much like today. Please be patient and supportive of our remarkable dining team as they work to run the Commons operation.
We will be back in touch when we have more information.
Many thanks to all,
Geoff Swift