Feb. 16, 2023: Spartan community update
NOTE: This message refers to sensitive details that may be triggering regarding the violence our community experienced. Resources and assistance are available through multiple campus programs.
Dear Michigan State University family:
Today, everyone is a Spartan. On your behalf, I have accepted calls, texts, and emails from MSU alums and retirees, government officials, institutional leaders and concerned Spartan community members from around the world wishing our campus strength and healing. Spartan green is everywhere, and your spirit is shining through.
Today, we will continue to grieve the loss of our students and hold up those who remain hospitalized. We also continue to provide counseling services for students, faculty and staff as each person processes this moment. Each of us is on an individual journey. Seek the help you need. Take the next best step forward.
We are on a communal journey as a university. Today, as on each day this week, our university leaders are coordinating and communicating university responses and steps to recovery. Leadership teams from the offices of the provost, executive vice president for health sciences and executive vice president for administration continue to meet with law enforcement, communications, student affairs and human resources. Our deans and campus supervisors are meeting, processing, and collaborating with leaders in colleges and units. We will solicit input from Faculty Senate, student government and our unions as we consider our next steps. And there will be a plurality of welcomed inputs from individuals. For today, I want you to know that we are meeting and integrating the wisdom of many into our next steps as a university.
To enable these next steps, today we have moved the university from a modified operational status to standard operations, but with the suspension of classes. This means that all our university offices are open, with wide latitude provided to supervisors across our university network.
Our university is a place of learning and discovery and outreach. Today, we are also working on developing guidance to faculty and academic staff regarding the return to classrooms. Our research and athletic competitions are resuming. Today and tomorrow, we continue to gather as small groups and as a community. This is our campus, and today and in each of our tomorrows, we take it back as our own.
My best,
Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. (she/her)
Interim President
MSU Foundation Professor