SUPPORTING WMA: WMA COMMUNITY FUND
by MARK AIMONE Director of Advancement
Uncertain times reveal ‘true character, resolve and extraordinary commitment’ of WMA community In April as the full scope of the pandemic became a reality, we launched the Community Fund as a way to focus all of our fundraising efforts on providing the resources necessary to react and adjust to the needs of our faculty, our students and their families, and our programs — with a goal of completing the 2019–2020 academic year. We have faced challenges before in our history, and in these times the true character of our community has been revealed. It is only through the resilience, the loyalty and the resolve of the entire community that each time we have emerged as a stronger, more vibrant place. The current situation is no exception. Thanks to the commitment and generosity of our community, we were, in true Atlas style, able to persevere through the spring, provide a high-quality, emergency online program and find a way to honor the Class of 2020 with a heartfelt, socially distanced send-off that involved our entire school community. Although the academic year came to an end for the students, it was just the beginning of the work that needed to be done in order to prepare for a new school year in the presence of a global pandemic. When we launched the Community Fund, we were not certain what our needs as a community would be. But as those days turned into weeks, it became clear it would take significant resources to prepare our campus for the fall and the safe return of our students and faculty. Without the benefit of a large endowment, we are left to rely on our own fiscal discipline and voluntary support to make this happen. Your support of the Community Fund played a key role in putting us in a position to be ready for in-person learning this school year. With almost $200,000 raised since the launch of the Fund up to June 30, we were able to take significant steps to insure the safety of our community — from relatively small items, like masks, hand sanitizers and air purifiers, to much larger projects such as the addition of three new shared bathrooms in Rich Hall and
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removal of the pews in Alumni Memorial Chapel to make room for additional dining seating. The biggest project on campus has been the renovation of the basement in Mattern Science Building. The original plan for the summer was to convert the more than 4,500-square-foot space into a Design & Fabrication Space that would be ready for September 2020. Unfortunately, the pandemic delayed the original plan, but because we had half of the necessary funding in hand, we were able to move forward on the renovation part of the project to create much-needed space for socially distanced classrooms. At the conclusion of this academic year, we will turn our efforts to the second phase of creating the Design & Fabrication Space. Perhaps the most important part of our plan for in-person classes has been having the ability for widespread, frequent testing here on campus. We are participating in a testing consortium with the Broad Institute that has allowed us to test students and faculty two times per week. The Community Fund will continue to be the focus of our fundraising efforts through this year as it will take time to fully recover from the impact of this pandemic. As you can read in the Opening of School article on pages 2–3, we continue to invest in the education of our students while prioritizing the health and safety of all members of the WMA community. These efforts require a significant and ongoing financial commitment. We are grateful and appreciative for all of your support and hope that we can continue to count on you to help us meet the challenges that lie ahead. Throughout our history, the WMA community has always come together to support and guide us through tough times and this moment is no exception. While we don’t know what the future of this pandemic will hold, one thing is certain, it is times like these when we see the true character, resolve and extraordinary commitment of the entire WMA community.
