Major Progress after meeting with Provost

Hello all, 

First and foremost, thank you for supporting this cause. I am confident that without your input and signatures, we would not have made the progress that we made tonight. 

I am reaching out to summarize the take-aways we came to at tonight's meeting with Dr. Iwanenko.

The meeting, which was attended by a small handful of students who shared concerns with me, myself, the director of the counseling center, and Dr. Iwanenko, was handled very respectfully and was very informative on all ends. 
At the meeting, we, the students, shared our concerns about the current remote delivery policies in place, and requested that the administration open this policy up to allow any student to apply for remote delivery.

After some discussion, Dr. Iwanenko committed to opening up the phrasing of the policy to include students with mental health conditions and students who either work with or live with vulnerable individuals. This is a significant change from the current policy, which is only open to students with physical illnesses that make them vulnerable to the virus, and students who are coming from places with travel bans. He also committed to extending the deadline for requesting remote delivery for this new group of students and will move it as far as 1-2 weeks into the semester. 

Upon our request, Beth Kropf, SGA president, agreed to providing a platform for students to speak sooner in the semester, rather than on April 20th (the original town hall date). She committed to working with SGA to move a town hall to the start of the semester. 

At this point, I am encouraging everyone to follow SGA so they can hear about/attend that town hall, and share any of their remaining experiences and concerns about the policy. Additionally, as we have seen tonight, Dr. Iwanenko is receptive to student voices, so please email him with any feedback on how Gannon can better assist students with COVID-related concerns.

On a personal note, I want to add that I know this is a HUGE stride in the right direction, but is also challenging in some ways. I personally still want the policy to be open to any student, regardless of circumstance, and yet I feel that the best way to make progress on that part of the policy will be to speak up and share our stories and concerns, constructively, directly, and with respect. Thus, I am thinking about  closing this petition, in favor of encouraging everyone to reflect deeply about what changes they want to see in COVID response, and to speak about them directly with the administration through email, the SGA google form from their instagram, and/or attending the town hall.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, via social media message or email (dickey003@gannon.edu) if I might be able help support you in this further.

Thank you to all of you for your activism. 

Warm regards, 
Katie Dickey