Dear St. Lawrence community,

We write with a heaviness we’re sure is all too familiar to our fellow Laurentians. As seniors ourselves, the uncertainty and quickly-changing nature of our final semester on the campus we’ve come to call home has caused significant anxiety, sadness, and perhaps most of all, gratitude. 

We are grateful to our community, our campus, our peers and mentors for shaping our last three and a half years into transformative ones. We are grateful for the sacrifice the administration, faculty, and especially the staff of St. Lawrence is making for the safety of all. Finally, we are grateful for this platform that gives the opportunity to continue to report and inform our community in this unprecedented time. 

While it is easy to feel helpless and panicked as news of this global pandemic rolls in, the most we can do is work together to promote facts, advice, and maybe a bit of hope. Despite being unable to publish our usual weekly content in print, The Hill News is committed to continue to be the voice of the Laurentian community, even in these uncertain times. 

This is where we ask for your help. Write to us with your unique perspective of this pandemic.

If you are still on campus, what is life like?

If you are in a high-risk area, how are you navigating quarantine and isolation?

Any tips to cure social-distancing-induced boredom?

If you are a professor, how are you planning for online instruction?

We want to hear from you. As we’ve said before and will continue to say, The Hill News is a community paper, and we must rely on our community now more than ever, even from miles away.

Beyond the hill at 23 Romoda Drive, the decision to leave campus impacts a much larger population than our students. This pandemic is so much bigger than us. In a widely circulated graphic, the importance of personal sacrifice for the good of the community is strikingly illustrated: a line of matches halts the domino-effect of burning when one match removes itself from the line. We urge you to stay in your home if possible, to follow government and medical advice to socially distance, and to navigate the world with compassion rather than self-interest. We can’t wait to see you again in April.

With gratitude and hope,

Kate Angus, Editor-in-Chief

Marrissa Allen, Editor-in-Chief

James Lehner, Managing Editor