Northwest University and Coronavirus Disease 2019

Posted on Saturday, February 29, 2020

Updated: March 2, 2020

Thanks for staying up to date on our operations at Northwest University. We want to remind everyone that we are in regular contact with King County Public Health, sharing information and receiving guidelines. We will continue to base our practices on the direction of local and national health authorities. Here are today’s updates:

Sports team trips next week to Uganda and Costa Rica, as well as the Choralons trip to Hawaii, will continue as planned. Students who, in consultation with parents, prefer to stay home are welcome to make that choice, although no refunds of travel expenses will be possible. Students who suffer from chronic disease or who are immunocompromised should stay home. For an excellent article on air quality on planes, see this NBC news article. Other student travel decisions will be made in a timely fashion over the coming weeks.
Please be careful not to treat anyone with prejudice during this time of uncertainty. Ethnicity has nothing to do with exposure to the novel coronavirus 2019. According to the CDC, “People—including those of Asian descent—who have not recently been in an area of ongoing spread of COVID-19 or been in contact with a person who is a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 are not at greater risk of acquiring and spreading COVID-19 than other Americans.” Furthermore, people who choose to wear face masks are not more likely to be carriers of disease. Often a face mask simply indicates greater concern about catching a virus.
Since it is cold, flu, and allergy season, many people in our community have cold or other respiratory symptoms and many people are choosing to play it safe. You should self-quarantine if you have fever, cough, and shortness of breath or contact with a person who has been exposed to COVID-19. If you do self-quarantine, please notify the Wellness Center at (425) 889-5282. If you are an employee, you must also notify your supervisor and the Senior Administrator over your area. If you are a student, you should notify all your professors so they will not mark you absent from class. Professors have been advised to excuse absences of anyone who chooses to stay home sick for any kind of illness.
Please call the Wellness Center at (425) 889-5282 first rather than just showing up unannounced. They will want to prepare you with instructions to serve you best.
If you are an employee and you need to stay home due to symptoms, report the time as sick leave. We will be generous in dealing with sick leave as the situation continues. Do not worry that you will run out of sick leave.
We will be posting a new page on our website at www.northwestu.edu that summarizes the guidance we have offered recently in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format. Follow the banner to find it.

Once again, wash your hands frequently with soap and sing the Doxology while you do it to make sure you get in the full 20 seconds. We are praying for you, and our trust in God has never been stronger.

Joseph Castleberry, Ed.D.
President, Northwest University

Updated: March 1, 2020

Dear Northwest University Community,

Thank you for all of the positive responses we have received from yesterday’s communication about the COVID-2019. We want you to be well-informed about how the University will respond to the emerging situation, so we will be updating our website regularly as the situation emerges. We urge you to check in daily with our website (www.northwestu.edu).

In an abundance of caution, we have decided to take temporary steps to reduce interpersonal contact on campus. Accordingly, we will cancel chapel services, select student activities, and close the Eagle Fitness Center through Spring Break. During that time, we will evaluate whether this measure needs to continue into the rest of the semester.
The University will be in communication with and will carefully follow all directives of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and King County Public Health (KCPH).
In the event that a confirmed case of COVID-19 occurs on the Northwest University campus, we will immediately inform the KCPH and follow their directives. If that were to occur, it is likely that classes would be temporarily suspended. Students would be encouraged to go home if possible. Students who choose to go home would be expected to fulfill all coursework requirements through remote study.
Students who are experiencing the specific symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, and/or shortness of breath) should call the Wellness Center at (425) 889-5282, which will advise them about what to do and follow up with daily check-up calls to monitor their progress. If symptoms occur outside of the Wellness Center’s regular hours, students may call the 24-hour free nurse hotline at (425) 899-3000 for advice.
Classes will continue to meet on campus for the time being. Faculty members are preparing for the possibility that classes will need to be taught remotely and will be ready to do so if necessary.
We encourage everyone to stay current with the information available on the CDC and/or King County Public Health websites.

May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Joseph Castleberry, Ed.D.
President, Northwest University

Posted: February 29, 2020

We received reports today of the first death in the United States from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and it occurred here in Kirkland at EvergreenHealth Medical Center. We have been tracking the disease carefully, and with its emergence in our own backyard, we must now address it very seriously.

The health and safety of every member of our community is always our highest priority, and we want to take every responsible step to counter the outbreak of disease. Here are some basic principles you should keep in mind while thinking about COVID-19:

According to the New York Times, “Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries.”
The disease can be fatal in perhaps 2% of cases, with older people and people with compromised immune systems being at greater risk. The person who died of the disease in Kirkland suffered from chronic illness.
The virus does not always cause symptoms in people who have been infected, and some people can carry the virus for some time before showing symptoms. That means that it will be very hard to keep people from being infected. It would be an overreaction to cancel university classes until we have evidence of an outbreak of COVID-19 in our campus community.
Unfortunately, the outbreak has now reached a global stage as well as a local one, so everyone must take this situation seriously.
We absolutely care about the lives of every person in our community and want to do everything we can to ensure the best possible outcomes. We also do not want to live in fear and allow it to lead us to poor decisions.

In view of these perspectives, we recommend the following actions:

Pray for God’s help to guide governments, agencies, institutions, families and individuals to act wisely and effectively to minimize exposure to the disease. Pray also for a divine intervention against the disease.
Stay home if you have any symptoms of respiratory illness and avoid close contact with others. Professors will work with students who must self-quarantine to ensure that they can complete their classwork. If you are an employee, we will work with you to ensure you have enough sick leave. Don’t be a “hero” by coming to work—be a hero by staying home if you are sick.
Wash your hands frequently (although not obsessively) for at least 20 seconds, especially after shaking hands with people. It takes about 20 seconds to sing the Doxology, so take advantage of the opportunity to praise God in the midst of this circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands. Cover your coughs to avoid spreading the virus.
Minimize physical contact with casual acquaintances, substituting a polite nod or other gesture instead of handshakes.
Avoid contact with people who are sick. If you are needed as a caregiver to someone suffering from the disease, do not return to public activity until you are cleared by medical personnel to do so.

In the meantime, the University is preparing so that classes will be available online through Panopto or Zoom for remote participation in case any quarantines or shutdowns are necessary. We will ultimately be guided by the King County Health Department and other governmental agencies that have authority over public health. We encourage everyone to keep up to date on the disease at the CDC and King County Health Department websites. Do not be unduly alarmed by media hype, but compare any stories you may read with these official sites. The Wellness Center is also prepared to offer you any counseling or assistance you may need. Do not let this situation create undue stress in your life, since stress weakens the immune system and only makes you more vulnerable to infection. Help is available if you are suffering from stress.

Many have asked already what the university intends to do about student travel. For most trips, it is still very early to make a decision. We will be in touch in a timely fashion with each group that is scheduled for travel, and we will place the highest priority on health and safety.

Finally, I want to urge everyone to take this epidemic seriously and from a position of faith and confidence in God. Even in the case of a pandemic, it is very unlikely that anyone at Northwest University will die from this epidemic. We are Christians, and we do not live in fear, but rather in confidence that God has our future in his hands and will preserve our bodies, souls, and spirits unto eternal life.

Joseph Castleberry, Ed.D.
President, Northwest University