  E-mail ``Messages From the President'' to university students, staff, and
faculty have long been used to keep campus communities aware of the latest
policies, events, and news. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, as universities
quickly closed facilities, sent students home, and canceled travel, these
messages took on even greater importance. We report on a content analysis of
bulk emails from different universities' presidents to their students and
employees before and in three stages of the pandemic. We find that these
messages change as universities move towards and through closure. During the
pandemic, 1) presidential bulk emails tend to be more informative, positive,
clearer than before; 2) they tend to use more personal and collective language;
3) university presidents tend to mention more local political leaders and fewer
other university leaders. Our results can inform research on digital crisis
communication and may be useful for researchers interested in automatically
identifying crisis situations from communication streams.
