Office of the Chancellor

Purdue Fort Wayne Spring Break Extended for Students through March 22

March 11, 2020

Dear Campus Community,

The impact of the global outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to affect our campus and our community. Since the beginning, we have been committed to doing everything possible to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

Our leadership team, including faculty leaders, has been in constant contact during the past few weeks—including a meeting this morning—in order to ensure that everything we do is in the best interests of the entire university community.

While we have been fortunate thus far to have had no cases of COVID-19 on our campus, there are confirmed cases in Indiana and in neighboring states. We must do everything possible to mitigate this virus and keep our campus safe.

To that end, Purdue University has developed and issued extensive measures to limit exposure to the virus on its campuses. Those directives are outlined in a letter from President Mitch Daniels and Provost Jay Akridge on Purdue’s coronavirus website.

Purdue Fort Wayne is working to adopt Purdue University’s directives, especially the mandate to move exclusively to online or virtual instruction for the foreseeable future.

As a first step, Purdue Fort Wayne is extending its spring break for students for one week to align with Purdue’s break. Purdue Fort Wayne’s spring break will now end on Sunday, March 22. This applies to Purdue Fort Wayne students only. Indiana University Fort Wayne students will attend their IU classes, as scheduled, but their Purdue Fort Wayne classes will be delayed until March 22. Purdue Fort Wayne faculty and staff should still report to work on March 16, as scheduled.

Our extended leadership team, including faculty and student leaders, will meet again this afternoon to continue identifying issues and solutions to this challenging situation. Additional information will be distributed to campus later today or early this evening.

As a reminder, the most recent information regarding the university’s status and operations will always be available on our COVID-19 website.

We recognize the disruption and inconvenience this may cause for our campus community. This is an imperfect scenario prompted by an unprecedented community health issue. We know there will be many questions, and we will be diligent in helping determine the answers.

Thank you for your continued flexibility, creativity, and resilience as we navigate this uncharted territory. We know it isn’t easy, but we will get through this together.

Sincerely,

Ron Elsenbaumer
Chancellor