We are in the home stretch of this crazy, chaotic, unprecedented semester at Moravian. As usual, students have a few things to sort out before we leave for the summer. With all of us being stuck at home, we at the Comenian answer some basic FAQs to help you finish out this semester stress-free. 

I have mail in my mailbox at Moravian. How do I get it?

According to Rachael Lyall’s email of March 20, mail is still being checked on a semi-regular basis. If students have something they need to pick up, they should email Michael Macenka ([email protected]) “to coordinate pick up or drop off of the package once it arrives on campus.”

When is graduation?

Graduation has now officially been moved to October 24, 2020. According to President Grigsby, the school chose this weekend, which is next year’s homecoming weekend, because students are already invited back to campus, so the class of 2020 will hopefully return to campus to celebrate commencement. 

The administration chose to have an in-person graduation in October because, as Grigsby writes in his April 1 coronavirus update, “You deserve an on-campus graduation. You deserve to have hundreds/thousands of alums cheering for you. You deserve to have this day to celebrate with your friends and family.”

Will we get a print diploma before graduation?

President Grigsby was clear that students will receive their degrees before October 24. He writes in an email to students that once each student completes their class requirements, they have received their degree. Therefore, students are still receiving their degree even if they are not receiving a print diploma. 

Regarding the process for receiving print diplomas, Provost Cynthia Kosso told us, “[the diplomas] will be mailed to [graduates’] homes after the end of the semester. It takes 6-8 weeks to receive them.” However, students will receive electronic ones sooner than this, according to Monique Davis, the Institutional Registrar. 

How will we get the stuff in our dorm rooms back?

All students are still required to wait to retrieve their stuff from their dorms and houses on campus because of the government-imposed quarantine rules. In his email from April 29, President Grigsby writes, “the Governor has remained resolute about clearing out dorms as a clear violation of his pandemic policy.” Therefore, we all have to sit tight and wait for the state-wide quarantine rules to be relaxed before we can retrieve items from our rooms. 

The Book Shop is closed. How do I return textbooks?

Students may not return textbooks in person at the Book Shop. The College, however, has offered students free shipping to return their textbooks via mail and has extended the deadline to do so, which is now June 15. Provost Kosso wrote in her email on April 29: “In order to return rented textbooks, please see the link here to print a free return label.”

“You will need your order number. If you cannot locate your order number, [look for an] email sent from Barnes & Noble titled ‘Rental Return Reminders.’  If you cannot locate this email, a reminder email will be sent again on May 4, 2020 with this information, so please keep an eye out for it.”

“If you decide that you would like to keep the rented textbook, you also have the option to buy the book/s out.  You can do this through the same email as above titled ‘Rental Return Reminders.’  To choose this option, just click the ‘Buy Now’ link in the email you receive.”

“In addition, if you purchased a textbook and are looking to do a book buy-back, that will be available in person leading up to the Fall 2020 semester when the Book Shop is able to reopen.” 

“Lastly, if you are enrolled in summer courses and would like to order your textbooks, you can do so through the Book Shop website.  They will be shipped directly to you.”

How do we get reimbursed for dining plans and room and board?

According to the update posted by Mark Reed, Moravian’s vice president for finance and administration and CFO, on April 23, students had the following options in regards to refunds: “The options available to the student will be to receive a refund of the amount due, to apply 105 percent of the refund to a future bill from the College or to donate some or all of the refund to the Moravian Scholarship Fund of the College.” Each student should have received a specialized email with the exact amount they were being refunded on or around April 23.

If students did not choose one of these options on their own, the default was to give students a refund for the amount they were to receive. 

For those students receiving refunds on meal plans, they received money back for seven of the 16 weeks of the semester that we were not on campus, which is summed up in the graphic below:

Students could also receive additional money for living expenses that come with being at home instead of on campus. Any student who “signed a room agreement for the spring semester” should receive a $1,000 grant, and the three following grants are available for students who qualified for PELL grants. This information is summarized in the chart below:

Study abroad students have been contacted individually by their supervisors.

Students do not need to take action for these grants, as explained in the email from the president from April 20, which reads, “As such, the student grants will range from $200 to $1,300 and these grants will be processed and paid to your student account. These grants will be administered by the Office of Financial Aid (and unlike the board refund described above, you do not need to take any action to receive these grants). Grants will be distributed upon final clarification from the Department of Education.”

How do we return library books?

In a few words: we don’t. The library is still not open, so no librarians are there to collect the books we have. Plus, it is important not to share the books that could be contaminated. Therefore, hold on to your library books, take care of them, and look out for reminders about how to return them when the school reopens. Don’t worry about fines. The library is waiving all late fees this semester.

Is there a possibility that we won’t return in the fall?

A number of schools  have said that they are progressing at this time as if they are going to be offering only online classes in the fall. While this may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, the feeling of uncertainty about the future is something that businesses like colleges and universities are not designed to face. Moravian College has made no statement about what our upcoming fall semester is going to look like. While there’s always a possibility that the quarantine will continue through the summer and that the virus will continue to be on the forefront of our minds all year long, the College does not know at this point if fall classes will be held virtually or in-person on campus. We all have to be patient and see where the summer takes us.