President’s Post-storm Update for New Students and Parents
August 28, 2011

Dear Students and Parents,

While we would have preferred that our several days of orientation activities could have proceeded as planned, my guess is that tropical storm Irene was relatively effective in bonding our new students—especially given that we were all confined to our living spaces for 12 hours during the brunt of the storm.

The good news is that everyone on campus is safe and secure. Many facilities have power but we're still experiencing intermittent outages around campus, and I've been informed that Internet access remains sporadic. Our staff is working diligently to address those issues and coordinating closely with Con Ed and other outside resources. For the parents of students residing in Hill House—or other areas affected by power and Internet issues—we suggest communicating via cellular phone and text message; those students should be encouraged to use their cell phone 3G service for e-mail purposes.

While our area never experienced the storm severity initially forecast, I want to assure you that SLC was prepared for the very worst scenario and the staff crisis planning team deserves enormous credit for our having come through this event as intact as we have. There are far too many individuals to thank by name, but I wanted particularly to extend the College's appreciation to Campus Public Safety Director Larry Hoffman and his staff; VP of Operations and Finance Joe Giovannelli and Senior Director of Facilities Mo Gallagher and her staff; Dean of Student Affairs Paige Crandall, Director of Residence Life Carolyn O'Laughlin, and their staffs; and AVI and ABM, our food and maintenance suppliers, respectively. Scores of SLC staff and suppliers went far beyond the call of duty and we're indebted to them.

As always, the physical and emotional security of students is our primary concern, and I'm pleased to report all is well. I hope the same can be said for the hundreds of parents, family members, and friends who said goodbye to their student yesterday and had to then manage returning to their homes in the face of a very significant weather and transportation challenge. All of you are in my thoughts.

Sincerely,

Karen R. Lawrence
President