From the Coronavirus Updates out at The Chronicle of Higher Education
5:33 p.m. Eastern, 8/18/2020
Michigan State Moves Fall Term Online, Asks Students to Stay Home
Michigan State University is taking the fall semester entirely online, reversing its plan to hold some classes in person, the university’s president, Samuel Stanley, announced on Tuesday. Stanley said the university was asking students who had planned to live in residence halls to stay home.
“Given the current status of the virus in our country — particularly what we are seeing at other institutions as they repopulate their campus communities — it has become evident to me that, despite our best efforts and strong planning, it is unlikely we can prevent widespread transmission of Covid-19 between students if our undergraduates return to campus,” Stanley wrote.
The president seemed to be alluding to spikes of Covid-19 at campuses like the Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Notre Dame, both of which have moved operations online (for the rest of the fall semester in Chapel Hill, temporarily at Notre Dame). —Andy Thomason