Message from President O'Donnell regarding Hurricane Sandy Recovery

Dear Members of the Manhattan College Community,

These have been a trying few days for our city and our region, and our hearts go out to members of our community who are struggling in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.

After careful consideration of the complex issues involved, we have decided that it is in the best interest of the community that the College remain closed until this coming Monday, November 5.  

You may be aware of the challenges facing us:  while all but three of our buildings have power and the majority (70-80%) of our students, faculty, and staff are able to get to campus, many remain without power in their homes and many need to commute from places in which the public transportation system continues to be unavailable or unreliable.   Given these unprecedented disruptions in electrical service and in the City’s and the region’s public transportation system, we know that it will be a long time before we are back to normal.  Nevertheless, we believe that closing until Monday will give members of our community the necessary time to recoup and to develop transportation plans so that we can resume the important work we share.

For resident students who have remained on campus during the storm we thank you for your patience.  Safety and weather permitting, we encourage students to be with their immediate families. 

For those who must stay, Residence Life staff will remain in place to assure normal operations of facilities.  Our partner, Gourmet Dining will continue to provide meals for students staying on campus in Locke’s Loft for the duration of the weekend. Residence Life staff, the Office of Student Activities and the SGA will continue to plan activities for students while attempting to make everyone as comfortable as possible. 

As most resident students are aware, East Hill Residence Hall lost power due to the storm and as a result is operating on an emergency generator.  This means that lighting is limited to the hallways and lobby areas.  In addition, while heat is being supplied to the building its circulation is limited and student rooms remain cool.  Physical Plant was able to restore hot water to the building.  East Hill residents who wish to stay on campus for the remainder of the week should be aware that these conditions are likely to persist.  The Residence Life staff in East Hill will work with individual students who wish to stay on campus but feel that because of the conditions they need to be temporarily relocated to another residence hall rooms.  We sincerely hope that permanent power to East Hill will be restored by Sunday evening but cannot promise that these conditions will not remain.  We will update the resident population regarding these conditions by the end of the weekend.

The power outage also affected Draddy Gymnasium and the facilities in Draddy Gymnasium and Alumni Hall will remain closed until power is restored.  Alternative practice sites are being planned for in-season athletic teams and news regarding scheduled athletic contests (home and away) will be posted on GoJaspers.com. 

Aside from these outages, the campus is fully functional.  Members of the community who wish to come to campus to use offices, computers, and phones are welcome. 

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we have tried to balance the varied challenges this storm has brought.