Messages

Dear Members of the Johns Hopkins Community: In the weeks since we wrote regarding the university’s planning process in the face of COVID-19, our community has witnessed and experienced the extraordinary pain caused by racial injustice and violence, borne especially by our Black students, faculty, and staff, against the continued backdrop of a global pandemic that has taken far too many lives and disrupted so...

Dear Members of the Johns Hopkins Community, In the past three months, across the U.S. and around the globe, we have experienced extraordinary challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In communities of which Johns Hopkins is a part—from Baltimore City, Washington, D.C., Prince George’s, Howard and Montgomery Counties to St. Petersburg, Florida, and many more—we have witnessed our African American, Latinx...

Dear Members of the Johns Hopkins Community: We write today to update you on our preparations for the gradual resumption of Johns Hopkins’ in-person activities as we face together the ongoing challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. No final decisions have been made at this time, and the health and safety of our community will remain paramount as we embark on a consultative process to consider our next steps. But we have...

Dear Members of the Johns Hopkins Community: In recent weeks, I have written to share updates with our community and to express my profound gratitude for your extraordinary response to COVID-19. I continue to be awestruck by our university’s remarkable resourcefulness and resilience, its decency and aspiration, its humanity and excellence. As we look across the vast expanse of Johns Hopkins—in health care...

Dear Johns Hopkins Faculty, Students, and Staff: It has been a long and nerve-wracking month since we began to fully prepare for, and mitigate the impact of, the extraordinary challenges posed by COVID-19. Our colleagues from the Bloomberg School of Public Health remind us that we are still likely a few weeks from the peak of the pandemic in Maryland. For the foreseeable future, we will remain under significant strain...

Dear Students of the great Class of 2020, In light of the recent guidance from public health authorities and our own experts about the prolonged and unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins has made the difficult decision not to hold universitywide and divisional Commencements in-person this year and will instead host a virtual ceremony on May 21. We know that you have looked forward to Commencement...

Dear Johns Hopkins Students, Faculty, and Staff: The rapidly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has called upon Johns Hopkins—and each of you—to take a series of unprecedented steps to safeguard our community and ensure that we can accomplish our mission to care for those we serve, including the most vulnerable among us. Today, we have arrived at another critical juncture in our response, and we have made...

Dear Johns Hopkins Faculty, Students, and Staff: We are facing an increasingly challenging moment as COVID-19 has moved from an isolated and seemingly distant outbreak to a global pandemic that is now clearly among us. The reality of the rapid spread of this virus calls upon us to acknowledge how starkly daily life across the world has changed. It also underscores the urgent need to step up the vigorous interventions...

Dear Johns Hopkins Students, Faculty, and Staff: I am writing at a critical inflection point in our university’s response to the global COVID-19 epidemic. Our approach to the epidemic has been guided by our commitment to sound public health principles and to informing our decisions with the best possible data that we can secure. It has also been guided by our deep commitment to the welfare of the entire Hopkins’...

Dear Johns Hopkins Community, Yesterday, I joined a chorus of voices that celebrated publicly the life and legacy of Congressman Elijah Cummings. I know so many of you share a profound sadness at this loss of an extraordinary and dear friend and an unflinching champion for the people of Baltimore, our state, and our nation. A proud son of this great city, Elijah Cummings held all of us—individually and collectively—to...