An Open Letter to SLU Administrators Regarding the Recent Email to the Student Body
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the University News Editorial Board and Staff. We hope this opens a dialogue about the ways in which the SLU administration and students have handled campus COVID-19 restrictions.
To the Administration of Saint Louis University:
We wish that we didn’t have to write this letter. In the midst of this deadly pandemic, circumstances behoove us to come together and unite in solidarity as we all cope with the challenges COVID-19 has wrought. But your rhetoric of late, especially the rhetoric laced throughout your recent email to students, sent on February 9, has left us with no other option than to publicly seek redress for what was said.
This pandemic has put strains on us all. It has affected our physical health, our social health, and, perhaps most importantly, our mental health. While we are sure that your intentions behind your most recent email to the student body were good, it lacked compassion and left us with a bad taste in our mouth.
To demonstrate, we will take this opportunity to provide you with some perspective about the harm we feel the email caused to the relationship between the student body and the university administration.
First, the email began with the assertion that some students have simply “given up.” This generalization is unfair and frustrating, especially for the students who have been constantly trying to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances and regulations SLU has put into place. While there are undoubtedly a number of students who continuously ignore public health and safety guidelines, they do not represent the vast majority of the student body that does follow the guidelines you have put in place. The administration can condemn the actions of those people without declaring that a portion of the SLU community has “given up” on caring about the health of our friends and family.
Second, you said that you were “deeply saddened” about the increased positivity rate, but went into elaborate detail about all the things that could have happened had the rate gone down or remained the same. We understand that this increased positivity rate has consequences, and that if it gets worse more stringent rules might need to be imposed. But there was no need to dangle several “new opportunities” in front of us knowing fully well that the positivity rate likely won’t subside in the near future due to Super Bowl parties. While some in-person events will now be permitted, this change does not substantively make up for the way the administration effectively taunted the student body with new policies, all while pinning the blame on students when these new policies could not be implemented.
Third, the administration threatened students. You made us feel as if students are entirely responsible for the increased positivity rate. You made the entire student body feel like the “other.” We didn’t come to SLU to be talked down to, berated and threatened by administrators. We understand that actions have consequences, but to pin all of the blame for this bump in the positivity rate on the student body as a whole is unfair and disappointing. From our perspective, it seems as though the administration is using the actions of a minority of the student body as a scapegoat for its own failed containment efforts, all while lumping these people in with the rule-abiding students. We do not appreciate that.
The administration opted to hold in-person classes on campus this semester. Faculty and staff commute to and from SLU on a daily basis. Thousands of students live in close quarters, both on and off-campus. By bringing us all together in this way, the administration bears as much responsibility for the health of the campus community as the student body does. Despite this, you continue to drive a wedge into that community by villainizing us.
All of this is not to say that the increased positivity rate is simultaneously alarming and disappointing. We want a COVID-free campus. We want to be healthy. We want to protect the St. Louis community. But instead of appealing to these important ideas and values when addressing us, the administration sent us an email chastising us like children. Your words dripped with condescension. Ultimately, the email made a bad situation worse.
Instead of pointing fingers and sowing division, the administration should approach this troubling new data with grace, wisdom and solidarity. Practicing the Jesuit value of cura personalis, Latin for “care for the whole person,” ought to be a top priority for administrators, especially in these unprecedented times. Thus far, it clearly has not.
Moving forward, we ask that the administration consider these concerns and work to address them. Let us treat each other with the dignity and respect that we all deserve. Together, we can weather this pandemic and emerge stronger, wiser and closer than we were before.
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business student • Feb 20, 2021 at 3:01 pm
The campus positivity rate is far higher than the community rate in St. Louis. Thankfully, there has been little to no evidence in classrooms across the country of teacher to student, or vice versa, spread. In the classroom at SLU, masks are required, and social distancing is enforced. Every faculty member’s syllabus has mask statement and one barring eating and drinking. They all seem to have virtual or phone based office hours to avoid the close personal contact that can spread illness. If you were brave enough to get to know your faculty, you’d realize that many of them felt pressured to hold in person classes because of how much we all complained about being online in the spring or by many of us simply failing their classes.
Because of the dangers posed by living on campus, hundreds of us have chosen to learn remotely or, for those lucky enough to live close enough, to commute from our homes. Even students who learn less well online had to weigh the risk of being on campus vs. bad grades. The administration created the remote option for all of us, and any of you (or your children) are welcome to use it. Instead, you are complaining that the administration is trying resolve issues caused by students who keep violating rules when, as you seem to understand, living in close contact means easier spread. There is a finite amount of space for quarantine. Signs, rules, sending violators home, and the previously polite emails were clearly not cutting it.
If you don’t want to hear from the administration about problems, why don’t you use your voice to chastise the people causing them? Every time that I go in Cook, I see groups of students sitting around the atrium, unmasked and simply talking. After my professor leaves the room, I see students immediately gather close together in conversation. If the faculty and staff’s recommendations don’t work for them, maybe they need to hear from other students.
Not Woke • Feb 17, 2021 at 4:32 pm
All these libs and Boomers are mad at young healthy kids trying to live a normal life. Kids get sick and recover 99.99% of the time like most mild illnesses. SLU cannot even provide the full value students pay for tuition anymore. If they want to be condescending they should cut their $50,000 tuition to reflect better on what you’re getting out of SLU these days. You can’t live like this forever.
To those saying the students are acting like entitled, selfish children, it is more selfish to demand society shuts down to keep you safe because you’re unhealthy, old, or irrationally scared. The epitome of selfishness is telling people to not go to school, work, events, or hangout with friends because you don’t feel comfortable. The world does not revolve around your personal comfort. You are free to stay home. No one is forcing you to live life like a normal person.
SLU Student • Feb 17, 2021 at 3:45 pm
I thought this article was extremely respectful and well-written. The email this article is responding to was unprofessional and made uncalled for accusations. No student wants to contract COVID, and it is ignorant to accuse students paying tens of thousands of dollars for an education of intentionally jeopardizing it. Students are wearing masks, accepting the constant changing rules and regulations, keeping clean and healthy while trying to socialize and enjoy their time at college and not be locked away in their room isolated. Of course there will be students who do not abide by every rule, but every single one of us have broken a rule during this pandemic, unless you are telling me every member of the administration and ignorant commenter have never seen a friend who does not live in their household, or kept six feet away from shoppers at the grocery store. To the commenters, this pandemic has been a challenge for every single person, no one has suffered more than someone else.
student • Feb 17, 2021 at 1:56 pm
As a SLU student, I am frustrated. There are people in the comments here saying things like, “if you know it doesn’t apply to you then move on.” These people are missing the point. The administration continues to send emails to the student body warning against what may happen if things don’t change, but the administration put us in this situation. Are they really that naive to think that thousands of students living in close quarters are going to follow COVID-19 guidelines? The answer is no. We all knew going into the school year that this wasn’t a good idea. No matter what the students SHOULD be doing, there will always be students that aren’t following suit. SLU, like many other academic institutions, brought us in for the money. Of course, if we have the opportunity to get a sliver of a normal college experience we are going to take the opportunity to live on campus. SLU knows that the students they are addressing in this email are the same students that they were addressing during the fall, yet nothing has changed. This small group of students has continued to put everyone else at risk, and the new restrictions they want for campus aren’t going to do what needs to be done. As much as I’d like to be on campus, they should have already sent us home. The administration needs to give us real solutions, not these useless warnings.
Kristen Green • Feb 17, 2021 at 1:56 pm
Fantastic and well written!! As a parent I absolutely agree with this. Despite what others may say here, I believe this is an appropriate and mature response to an e-mail that was condescending and unprofessional and deflected responsibility for the situation. This has nothing to do with privilege or entitlement. That email had a lot of people angry, especially those who are following the rules. My child has told me numerous times about faculty and staff that openly admit to attending parties outside school. Furthermore, until SLU decides to see the difference in those living on campus and those living off campus and commuting to SLU, the positivity rate will continue to exist. There can’t be rules for some and not all in this situation! They should be randomly tested like the rest of the population and held to the same standards. Additionally, don’t send an email out chastising students for social interactions then turn around and send out emails for all kinds of events you’re hosting. College kids don’t want to get together and paint a mug! Especially after being screamed at for basically not caring about a single other person in the community.
I saw KUDOS to these gentlemen for standing up for what they and so many believe in and doing so in a very professional and mature way!!
student • Feb 17, 2021 at 8:49 am
i thought that slus email was warranted given the behavior that many students are exhibiting. as far as i can see, people are continuing to go out to parties and events without masks and without care for the community at large. i think that by the way all of y’all are acting we should’ve gotten sent home a long time ago. this “response” is entitled, whiny, and selfish. sorry you feel like you’re being blamed, but there are people dying every single day as a result of this pandemic. actually give a shit and get over yourselves. i dont necessarily agree with SLU most of the time, but this doesn’t make us look any better.
student • Feb 17, 2021 at 12:05 am
Oof, I’m embarrassed to even be reading this. You’re being very over-dramatic and entitled. Extremely so. Kim, there’s people that are dying.
Fyndegil • Feb 16, 2021 at 7:50 pm
The administration’s emails have gotten pretty unprofessional lately. This isn’t just Zoomers and Millennials being entitled.
Andrew Sova • Feb 16, 2021 at 6:19 pm
As a former graduate, their School of Public Health and School of Medicine should have resolved this months ago. Stop all testing, it goes against every scientific principle to test the public for an illness where people do not show symptoms. Furthermore, it makes no sense to attempt to ground resident life to a halt and implement ridiculous quarantines for a diseases with a mortality rate far less than 20%. (At this point it’s less than 1%)
But you all are just now realizing, as I learned nearly 10yrs ago when I attended, the level of liberal hypocrisy and shear stupidity that reigns over this institution. Common sense and real data means nothing to the administration only feelings and vague fears about the greatest farce in medical history.
Finish out your semesters and transfer out, the only way to impact the Board is by cutting their funding, it’s all they have ever cared about.
An Alum • Feb 16, 2021 at 5:12 pm
I understand where you are coming from but this is truly one of those moments where, if it doesn’t apply to YOU, ignore it and move on. I graduated last year, the administration has not always handled things perfectly, especially while we are going through this pandemic, but the growing number of cases on and off campus and the behavior of the current students has more of an effect than “some on campus could-have-beens are now canceled”. Everyone of those cases is a person who now has COVID-19 and that has far reaching effects for them, their families, and the people they will no doubt come into contact with. The staff and professors all have families as well and so many of them do not have the same choices/liberties that you as students do. Beyond the professors, every staff on campus is making a sacrifice in order to go to work everyday. The sanitation staff are put at IMMENSE risk in order to keep students and faculty safe. The least you as current students can do is accept personal responsibility for your actions and behavior. If you already have and have not attended parties or gatherings, good for you! The message wasn’t meant for you then. Accept that this is difficult for everyone but especially for the people whose lives are most affected by negligent students.
Stephen Strum • Feb 16, 2021 at 3:20 pm
Excellent response, and thank you for taking the time to prepare and send. When I first saw the email from SLU, I immediately thought the tone was harsh. The students at SLU have done an outstanding job during this pandemic, and that comment comes straight from the top (President Pestello). Have the last 11 months of this pandemic been tough? Yes. Has it been a strain on the mental health of everyone, most importantly our students who are trying their best to learn, while at the same time trying to enjoy their college experience? Yes. So rather than pointing blame on the students, and threatening next moves of the University if the students don’t do better, let’s come together in a more collegial tone. As a parent of a junior, I personally believe the students are doing an outstanding job under very difficult circumstances. Thank you students and keep up the good work.
Stacy • Feb 16, 2021 at 2:40 pm
I do not live near your campus. I don’t have anyone in my family who goes to SLU. But I am thankful your administrator admonished those who don’t do what they are supposed to do, because SLU students frequent a lot of places I also go. I’m invisible to you because I am a community member at large. The carelessness that has been exhibited at these parties also lead to carelessness in public places. Please remember there are people dying around you in a community that hosts you. Please honor us by doing the right thing.
SLU Alum • Feb 16, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Boomers, parents, and other alum are going to comment on this and tell you “damn kids to follow the rules!! Stop being so selfish! Back in my day we weren’t so triggered by some WORDS!”
Let them. They’re wrong. SLU’s admin is wrong. You are right. Thank you for your words. SLU chose to bring you back to campus as a financial decision, with no regard to your personal safety and well-being. You are a check in their eyes. Without student’s tuition and room & board, University admin would have to face the implication of putting more money into dorms than academic programs over the past decade. Make them own the fact that all of the increases in COVID cases on campus are a result of THEIR actions.
Keep making noise. Hold admins’ feet to the fire (metaphorically, not literally!!). They can’t take back the actions that have led to this moment, but you can demand the change that will ensure the university and its leaders can no longer avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
Anonymous • Feb 16, 2021 at 12:35 pm
This gives me entitled white liberal, tease. From one student to the next, get over yourselves. We both know that students are not doing all that they can. Many have been so clearly irresponsible and skirting by guidelines in order to have fun. The email that Lohe sent was very real and should have been a wake up call for many students. Instead…you all are responding like this. Lol I don’t blame administration if they send us home. Maybe it’ll teach the entitled a lesson.
Alum Parent • Feb 16, 2021 at 11:53 am
I completely agree with the email that was sent. If it did not apply to you then you are doing what needs to be done. If it applies to you then do better. This is not the first email about this topic. Do you honestly believe after several emails referring to the same problems and disappointment the tone was going to be loving and sweet. Seriously!! We are talking about adults not children, stop pacifying them. Stop getting your feelings hurt, because you felt an email that was straight to the point was too aggressive for you. This is the real world and real life, welcome to adulthood.
SLUdent • Feb 16, 2021 at 9:29 am
I don’t buy it. I think the goal of the administration in writing that email was to do nothing more than speak directly to those blatantly skirting regulations..and that’s not only well within their right, but also their responsibility given the Campus Commitment we all signed. While maybe a sentence or two excusing those who have gone out their way to follow guidelines should have been included, there’s a bigger problem at hand than protecting their feelings. We’re college students and should be able to differentiate for ourselves who the message was for.
Would the alternative have been to sit back, say nothing, and accept that the “positivity rate likely won’t subside in the near future due to Super Bowl [and Mardi Gras] parties”?
Lastly, to say that their containment efforts have failed is flat out false — we are on campus, we have in person classes, and we can spend time with friends if we follow a few simple guidelines. There’s one way out of this pandemic — we need to put a little stock in what was said before a slap on the wrist becomes being sent home.
Jennifer Christy • Feb 16, 2021 at 9:19 am
Fantastic and well written. As a parent I absolutely agree with this and sent my own communication to the administration regarding the tone of this letter. Despite what others may say here, I believe this is an appropriate and mature response to an e mail that was condescending, unprofessional, undeserved and deflected any responsibility for the situation.
An Alum • Feb 16, 2021 at 9:08 am
Sorry Conor, your entitlement is showing and it is not a good look for you. A good chunk of adults have given up their entire lives for the last year in order to keep our family and community safe. As a SLU grad, I know that you have been taught to be men and women for all, and this op ed does not show that at all. It’s unfortunate that you feel victimized by the email call out, but it is also unfortunate that the students can’t stop partying during a pandemic. It’s hard to get called out, but sometimes it is necessary for the good of the community. The one thing you are right about though? Maybe SLU did give it’s students too much credit by thinking they were adult enough to come back to campus. They likely should have made you do the year from home. If you had any empathy at all, you would be thinking about your professors and how they could bring this home to their families, not discussing how they are likely the spreaders because they commute.
Christy Anne Jones • Feb 16, 2021 at 8:33 am
You sound to me like a bunch of entitled, self important whiners. Get over yourselves and do what you’re supposed to do.
Christian Chellis • Feb 16, 2021 at 1:52 am
While I agree with this 100%, I think the communications the Administration gives students regarding COVID are not meant that way in the sense to be mean. They are written aggressivly for the terms of encouragement, to push us to do better.
The communications are to push us to be better, as I can say I don’t know what more we can do. Yes, the administration knows they are being meaner than they should, but I don’t think they mean it fullheartedly.
Another SLUdent • Feb 16, 2021 at 12:42 am
Thank you for this article. There is no doubt in my mind that the core message of the email––that we all need to do better––was true, but the tone filled students with fear and shame, turning us against each other rather than calling us in to increased teamwork and morale. As a student who was in isolation at the time, the email made me feel like I had a target on my back. I felt less inclined to be vulnerable with professors or friends about the support I needed because I didn’t want them to know that I was one of the offenders who had caught the virus. Messages from administrators can set the tone for how the rest of the SLU community treats each other, and this message was clear that those of us who have gotten COVID already this semester are the enemy. This approach frankly seems like it could cause more harm than good by making people afraid to admit that they’re feeling sick or broke a guideline. My hope is that University administrators can continue to challenge us to be people for others without inflicting hurt and shame on those of us who are in isolation or quarantine moving forward. We can work better as teammates than enemies, and SLU will be a better place for it. Don’t let COVID turn us against each other.
sludent • Feb 15, 2021 at 7:51 pm
Hello Conor,
I must say I am disappointed in your response. It feels very immature, condescending, and unproductive. Yes, the email you are referring to was a bit harsh, but instead of discussing productive ways for the administration and students to move forward, you unfairly put all of the blame on the administration. Maybe you are adhering to campus Covid restrictions, but there are many who are not.