August 14, 2020
Mount Mercy’s summer session is extended indefinitely due to the current power and WiFi outages. The start of the academic year has been delayed. The fall semester and Block 1 will start Monday, Sept. 7. Courses will be offered as designed—hybrid and online.
McAuley Hall sustained significant water damage and is unusable at this time. This has limited Mount Mercy’s overall housing capacity, so students who were placed in McAuley will be relocated to a different residence hall.
"We have made the difficult decision to only place students living more than 15 miles from campus in campus housing for the fall semester," said Nate Klein, vice president for student success. "Residence Life staff will contact all residential students in the coming days to talk about next steps. Once campus power is restored, they will also communicate if a student’s housing placement has changed and what the new move-in date will be."
The high winds damaged many of Mount Mercy’s outdoor facilities at the Plaster Athletic Complex, including soccer goals, outfield fences and track equipment. Hennessey Recreation Center and Rinderknecht Athletic Center were not damaged.
Mount Mercy plans to continue with fall sports. All student-athletes are required to complete a COVID-19 screening with a negative result prior to participating in team activities.
Mount Mercy is also highly recommending all students get a COVID-19 test before coming to campus. If students test positive, they must self-isolate for 10 days from the test date, be asymptomatic and have no fever for 24 hours before reporting to campus.
Campus will be open for employees to return to work on Wednesday, Aug. 19, if power is restored. A campus clean-up is scheduled Aug. 17-18 for employees only.
More information on Mount Mercy’s storm recovery and fall start plan is available at mtmercy.edu/storm-recovery.