March 12, 2020

Dear UWLA Family:

The safety of you, your family and our community is our institution's highest priority and guides our proactive planning and response to the COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus) pandemic. Fortunately, at this time, there are no suspected cases of COVID-19 on our campuses. We may be criticized for this action as being premature but in the context of the unknown I prefer to err on the side of caution in protecting not just you, but your families and friends that interact with you. Again, this is not just to protect you as a member of the UWLA family, but also those that you interact with which may be at a higher risk for COVID-19 (the elderly and those with serious chronic medical conditions) of which more can be read on the CDC website at 

To keep the UWLA community updated, we will post regular updates on our www.UWLA.edu homepage as events unfold. I appreciate your cooperation, patience, and understanding as we respond to quickly changing circumstances.

The State of California and Los Angeles County have already declared emergencies to prepare for and manage the risks associated with the spread of COVID-19.

In consultation and collaboration with UWLA's leadership, we are presently taking the following steps to mitigate the spread of the virus and safeguard our community:

From March 16 through April 10, 2020, UWLA will provide instruction for both the School of Business and the School of Law only in a virtual telephonic and/or online format. During this period, we will reevaluate our options and determine next steps for the remainder of the term/semester. Our campuses will close and employees will work from home so that we may remain operational. We will provide further information to students in the coming days.

Please note that you will receive more specific instructions and details via email from Jesse Aldava (jaldava@uwla .edu) to ensure a smooth transition to this learning modality over this period. We anticipate there will be questions and minor adjustments, but we will stand ready to support and assist our students, faculty, and staff.

We will continue to monitor the latest developments in this rapidly changing situation. While COVID-19's emergence has tested our planet's health care systems, I am proud of our Institution and its stakeholders' resilience. UWLA is a fifty-four year old institution and we continue to care for one another as a large extended family.

Together we will work together to overcome this COVID-19 challenge. Please reach out to me if I can be of any assistance to you in these challenging times.

Sincerely,

Robert W. Brown, Esq.

President, UWLA