Week One

Wake Forest Responds to COVID-19

By Wake Forest University

March 27^th, 2020

Preparation

Week One of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Wake Forest campus started after Spring Break when most of the students didn't return to campus. On Monday, March 16, President Nathan O. Hatch led the last in-person meeting of the COVID-19 Task Force in Reynolda Hall - by the next morning it was all remote. Aramark employees disinfected the cafeteria for the handful of students still on campus, while trying to enforce social distancing in the Pit. Faculty members prepared to teach all of their classes online.

President Hatch leads the last in-person meeting of the COVID-19 Task Force in Reynolda Hall on March 16.

Facilities staff worked on maintaining the campus.

Cleaning the Reynolda Fresh Food Company (The Pit) was an all-hands-on-deck job.

Chemistry professor David Wren films himself giving a lecture, to be posted on Youtube for his CHM 280 class.

Maintaining social distancing in the food line.

Priscilla Cook cleans a food service counter in The Pit.

An Empty Campus

The Wake Forest campus is normally crowded and bustling in March, with thousands of students, faculty and staff, and hundreds of prospective students visiting every day. Last week it was oddly quiet, with empty parking lots and lone figures walking in the distance.

A faculty parking lot is empty on a Monday morning.

Davis Residence rises above an empty parking lot.

The entrance to the Z. Smith Reynolds Library welcomes patrons, though the library is empty at this time.

The Pit is open for breakfast, but no one has arrived yet.

A lone staff member walks past the Health and Exercise Science building.

The track is usually full of runners and joggers in the morning.

An almost empty parking lot behind Winston Hall.

A student walks alone past Taylor Residence. A handful of students who can't go home are living on campus.

Still Here

Wake Forest staff were still providing essential services, from security to landscaping, while a handful of students were adapting to the new challenges of life on campus.

University Police officer Tim Wilson patrols an empty campus.

Wake Forest security officer Ron Smith works the University Parkway gate.

We Will Persevere

"Even in these circumstances, we are here for your daughters and sons. Whether they are taking part in a Google hangout session with the Intercultural Center or getting research help from the library, your students remain our priority. I speak for all the Wake Forest community when I say that we look forward to the time when we will be together on our beautiful campus again."