news article

July Wesley Course of Study program canceled

April 7, 2020 / By Sara Sheppard and Doug Tzan

Editor's Note: On April 7, the UNY Conference was notified, in the following letter, that the Wesley Course of Study program scheduled for July at the United Methodist Center is canceled.

Good Afternoon,
I am sorry to write and tell you that we are canceling Wesley's 2020 July session (all 20 classes). We struggled with this decision, but here is ultimately why we have decided to cancel:
1. This pandemic is clearly not going away any time soon.
2. The majority of COS students are in the most vulnerable age bracket.
3. COS students travel from all over the country to attend classes. That's just too many people from too many places to bring together.
4. We know for a fact that many of us are struggling with how to minister to our churches at this time. This is the time to put our books away for one session and focus on being the hands & feet of Christ to those we are privileged to serve. Learn new ways of being church and report back. We look forward to hearing all of the new things you learn!

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY WE PAID?
We have not processed any of the tuition or housing bills for July, and so this is not an issue. Any funds that you may have sent in are credited to your account and will offset any future registrations or housing costs.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH OUR PRE-CLASSWORK?
* Keep all of your pre-class work in a safe place (not on your computer's main drive)
* Copy and paste any discussion board posts that you have written, save them in a Word document, and put them in a safe place.
* What is a "safe place?" Attach all of your work for one class in an email and send it to yourself at an email address that you can access from anywhere (gmail, yahoo, Hotmail, aol, etc). Then repeat for each class you're taking. That way you have all of your items in one place, nicely organized by class. We will work with the faculty teaching in the weekend sessions to accept any pre-work already completed.

WILL THE CLASSES BE RESCHEDULED?
We have adjusted the Wesley weekend schedule to include all 20 courses over the course of the next academic year beginning in August. We will email all students who had registered for the July program, include the updated course schedule and give them first dibs on enrolling in the weekend session course or at a satellite school should that be closer to your home.

DO THE CONFERENCES AND DISTRICTS KNOW THAT THIS IS BEING CANCELLED?
We have sent a copy of this email to all of the conference reps who have a summer school student on this email. We would highly suggest you send this email to your DS and DCOM chair to let them know what's going on.

We will miss seeing all of you this summer, but please know that as we cancel these classes we will be praying for each of you by name.

May God bless you, your families, and your churches.
May you remain safe and healthy.

Blessings,
Sara Sheppard and Doug Tzan

Click here for upcoming 5-year schedule
Click here for 2020-2021 registration form.