FARMVILLE – Longwood University President Patrick Finnegan has been admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.

The retired Army General has been suffering from pneumonia.

LU spokesperson, Dennis Sercombe, told The Herald that President Finnegan “was admitted to Walter Reed because he was not making any progress at home-he wasn't getting better, but he wasn't getting worse.”

Sercombe, Associate Vice-President for Marketing and Communications, wrote in an email response to the newspaper that he had spoken to the president's office and was told President Finnegan will be re-evaluated “at the end of this week and we should have more info early next week. At this point, all of his activities/meetings through next week have been cancelled.”

Meanwhile, Longwood University's Interim Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Ken Perkins, sent out a campus-wide “Dear Colleagues and Friends” email saying that President Finnegan has “been out sick with pneumonia since he returned from his vacation last week.”

Perkins said the president was admitted to Walter Reed “to be on the safe side” and “where he will be undergoing tests and receiving the best of care from the U.S. Army's flagship medical facility.

“I fully expect President Finnegan to recover faster now that he is under the care of physicians and nurses at Walter Reed,” Perkins wrote, in the email provided to The Herald by Sercombe.

President Finnegan assumed the presidency of LU in July after the retirement of Dr. Patricia P. Cormier and was ready for the first academic year of his tenure. LU students began arriving this week and classes begin on Monday.