Virginia’s Governor Urges Liberty U. to Tell Students to Stay Home

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Quoting Scripture, Gov. Ralph S. Northam of Virginia on Wednesday strongly urged Liberty University’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to reconsider his decision to invite thousands of students to return to campus amid the state’s worsening coronavirus crisis.

“We appreciate that our colleges and universities are making accommodations for students with special cases, but that is very different from inviting students to leave their homes and come back to campus,” Northam said during a news conference about the state’s overnight spike in Covid-19 cases. As of Wednesday, Virginia had 391 diagnosed cases, up 101 in the past 24 hours, with at least 13 deaths.

By encouraging students to return to campus, Liberty, one of the nation’s largest and most prominent evangelical colleges, was adding to the mixed messages people are receiving about the severity of the crisis, the governor said.

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“As we are told in First Corinthians, it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful,” he added. And that means providing “clear and consistent guidance” and “respecting the duty Liberty University has to its students, its staff, the Lynchburg community in which it is located, and our commonwealth.” Northam suggested that Falwell follow the lead of the state’s flagship universities by encouraging everyone who is able to remain home.

The governor’s call stepped up the pressure on Liberty to scale back its campus presence. On Tuesday about 2,000 students were living on campus after Falwell sent an email last week inviting students to return, even though all but a few classes are now being offered online.

Falwell has insisted that Liberty isn’t doing anything different from other campuses that are making room for international students and those who have nowhere else to go.

Liberty officials strongly refuted the governor’s accusations in a statement on Wednesday, lobbing back some Scripture at Northam.

“The governor was quoting Scripture today about Christian duty to protect our students. That’s exactly what Liberty has been laboring tirelessly to do over the last couple of weeks,” the statement said. “We really think it’s un-Christian to turn students away and push any problems off on someone else. Most of our residential-campus students are not in the Lynchburg area. Only about 10 percent of our residential students are currently here on campus.” Many are international students who cannot return home, it said.

The university is complying with all state and federal guidance on social distancing and other protective measures, the statement said. “That anyone in the City of Lynchburg would welcome other college students from across the state — and indeed the world — to return ‘home’ to Lynchburg but expect the drawbridge should be pulled up to deny entry to Liberty students illustrates the height of hypocrisy and scapegoating that is going on today.”

The university invited the governor “to come and see our compliance for himself, rather than making false accusations in press conferences from Richmond.” And it ended by saying, “as the Ninth Commandment says, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’”