To our readers and community:

As the world around us has become increasingly uncertain, with a global pandemic seemingly evolving day-by-day and hour-by-hour, it’s never been more important for our sense of community to remain a certainty.

Journalism during the COVID-19 outbreak is complicated — our colleagues at some of the nation’s largest outlets have been forced into uncharted territory, trying to cover the greatest crisis in recent memory all while the usual day-to-day routines of our lives have been turned upside down. While the Collegian works within a far narrower scope, we face much of those same challenges as well.

In an effort to uphold our commitment to our community and continue to provide quality, independent journalism as so much changes at the University of Massachusetts and throughout the Pioneer Valley, the Collegian will continue to publish online for the rest of the semester.Print production will be suspended, with hopes of publishing one final print edition before the end of the semester.

With in-person classes suspended for the rest of the semester, a majority of our staff is at home with their families, making print production all but impossible; however, we’ll continue to do our very best in covering the COVID-19 situation at UMass and in Amherst, as well as continued content across all our sections. Our focus will be digital coverage, as is necessary with the need for people to stay at home growing by the day.

We encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates in your inbox, and to follow us on our social media platforms to stay as up to date as possible. We’ve also added a COVID-19 section to our homepage, where all of our content related to the outbreak will be housed.

These are difficult times for everyone, and it all feels so uncertain — our hope is that the Collegian can be a steady presence through it all.