This Year Like No Other: President Wilcox’s Virtual Forum Address
By Shalynn Franzen
One month into the semester, Southern Virginia University currently has no positive cases of COVID-19. The University attributes this success to the campus community's adherence to its Healthy Campus Plan, of which President Wilcox detailed in his forum address at the beginning of the semester.
As the first week of classes ended, the bells rang as usual, signaling to the school that forum was beginning. Rather than gathering towards the Knight Arena, as in previous semesters, students returned to their rooms and homes, settled down with their technology, and watched the first virtual forum from their iPads.
With this first change in mind, President Wilcox stated, “We are sort of starting our second campus today, the Virtual Campus; we have the Virginia Campus overlapping with the Virtual Campus.”
While speaking of the new policy changes this year, President Wilcox used the imagery of a lunar mission. If a rocket is sent to orbit the moon, it must be fired from a spinning planet to a moving target. It has to be sent to precisely the correct spot: if it goes too close to the moon, it crashes on the surface; if it’s too far it just goes out into deep space. There is a small window it must reach to orbit the moon and not crash.
No one is good enough to calculate that shot perfectly, said President Wilcox. The only way it succeeds is because of its ability to course correct, with little jets firing up to push it into its path. Similarly, Southern Virginia University and its students, faculty, and staff, will have to adjust and change throughout the year to keep everyone safe.
This year will be like a startup; President Wilcox explained that things will not go as planned. But it is our ability to course correct that will allow this year to happen. He promised that the University will adjust, and will correct itself along the way.
President Wilcox said that a startup must have three things to be successful: flexibility, the ability to learn fast, and optimism. For him, this is the recipe for a good school year.
Overall, Southern Virginia University is meant to be a refuge from the storm, he explained — both the spiritual storm and now the viral storm. Just as Southern Virginia University’s traditional forum hymn is “Love One Another,” President Wilcox encouraged everyone to show love and abide by the new rules — not only for their own safety, but also for the safety of their friends, professors and teachers.
“Safer facilities only work if there are safer practices,” President Wilcox said. He emphasized that these new measures will only keep us safe if we live by them, and reminded that this is for now, not forever. That the virus will pass, and a new normality will come. But until then, he encouraged everyone to wear masks, wash hands, and stay safe.
