COVID-19 - For undergraduate students

On April 20, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a  “stay at home” mandate for the county in which Messiah College is located (Cumberland County) through May 8. In response to this directive, Messiah’s  previously announced housing check-out process was updated and communicated in late April. 

All residential students must move out between May 20 - June 30, with the exception of Naugle residents who moved out between May 9-May 14. 

The full details of the updated undergraduate move-out plan can be found on the Residence Life website.

Messiah does have the ability to quarantine and/or isolate a limited number of sick students on campus. These students will be cared for by our medical staff in one of the on-campus areas safely designated for quarantine and isolation.

The College has made the informed decision to cancel all May Term 2020 cross-cultural trips, this year’s International Business Institute, Seven's musical tour, and all other summer service and missions trips through August 2020. Additionally, on May 27, 2020, Messiah made the decision to cancel all off-campus, semester-long programs offered through Messiah for the fall 2020 semester. 

Students who were registered for these courses/experiences were notified appropriately.

These decisions were not made lightly, and we realize the loss of this experience for our students. Messiah highly values the transformational learning that occurs in experiential contexts. And while our current global circumstances do not allow us to travel internationally, we are committed to fulfill those educational objectives by providing students with other learning opportunities.

When cancellation of campus programming is necessary due to risk factors involving COVID-19, the College will work to secure refunds and recuperate lost student funds as much as possible. To this end, the College will work in a number of ways with students who have been impacted adversely, according to individual situations and circumstances. This also applies to programs where housing and/or meals were included in the study abroad costs.

The following policy will be adopted for Messiah College Scholarships

• For Messiah College scholarships (Trustee’s, President’s, Provost’s, Faculty, Dean’s, Martin’s, R.H. Flowers, Vollmer’s, and Shaffer-Goodling), there will not be a GPA review this year. Students will continue to receive their current internal scholarship support in the 2020-2021 academic year.
• The regular GPA review for Messiah College Scholarships will be in place again in spring 2021, but GPA from spring 2020 will only be counted in this internal scholarship review if it is the same as or higher than the cumulative GPA.
• This exception is only for internal scholarship review; as noted above, for all other purposes, spring term 2020 grades are recorded on student academic transcripts.
• Note that Title IV Aid (Unsubsidized Federal Direct Stafford Loans, Subsidized Federal Direct Stafford Loans, Federal Direct PLUS Loans, Federal Pell Grants, Federal SEOG, TEACH Grants, and IRAQ and Afghanistan Service Grants) still requires satisfactory academic progress as spelled out in financial aid policies found here.

Details regarding Messiah’s plans for the Commencement celebration for the Class of 2020 may be found at messiah.edu/UGcommencement and at messiah.edu/GRADcommencement.

Messiah College offered refunds for room and board losses to all students who were required to depart campus. Students who participated in our Dining Dollars or Ala Carte dining plans received a cash refund for their unused dining dollars/meal plan balance as of March 16, 2020. For room fees paid, graduating seniors received a pro-rated cash refund, and other undergraduate students had the option of a pro-rated cash refund or a pro-rated credit that will be applied to future semesters.

On April 7, Student Financial Services emailed students directly with details regarding the process and next steps for their room and board refunds. Questions may be directed to Student Financial Services at  studentfinsvcs@messiah.edu or call 1.717.691.6004, Monday through Friday, 8 am - 5 pm. The College was committed to issuing refunds no later than May 1, 2020.

Lottie Nelson Hours Summer Hours

Monday – Friday

• Breakfast :  7 – 8 a.m.
• Lunch:  11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• Dinner: 5 – 6 p.m.

Weekends

• Brunch:  10:30 a m  – 12:30 p.m.
• Dinner:  5 – 6 p.m.

The following dining locations are CLOSED:

• The Falcon
• Union Café
• Café Diem
• Café @ Winding Hill

Please visit the Dining Services webpage for menus and more details.

Follett Higher Education Group, Messiah’s external partner for its campus store, textbook and course materials, is offering the following three options to facilitate students’ learning process and make their eLearning experience more dynamic: 

• Free online shipping offer: Visit the campus store website at https://www.bkstr.com/shopmessiahstore for free shipping on all items with no minimum purchase. This includes various formats of course materials, supplies, apparel, technology and more. 
• Free shipping on rental returns and deadline extensions: The campus store is offering free shipping return labels and is also extending the non-return period without penalty to assist with increased returns by mail. Click the COVID-19 message on the home page of the campus store website at https://www.bkstr.com/shopmessiahstore .

Mail: All first class letters (those that cost a minimum of $.35 to send) will be forwarded to the address we have on file. In most cases, this is probably your home address.

Packages: If your package was mailed via the United States Postal Service (USPS), you will receive an email stating your package will be home delivery. Your package will be forwarded to the address we have on file.

If your package is UPS, FedEx, Amazon OR any other shipper, you will receive an email telling you we are not able to forward your package. In this case, the email we send you will give you a list of options for how to receive your package. Please read all emails thoroughly.

Before placing any additional orders, please change your default address with the shipper to your home address until you have a confirmed return-to-campus date. No packages should be delivered to Messiah College when you are not residing on campus.

Note:  All perishable orders (MISFITS, HELLO FRESH, etc.) must be cancelled or rerouted. Any perishables received will need to be discarded!

All indoor and outdoor athletic facilities are closed for use until further notice.