SUNY scrubs campus classes
All instruction to be online; New Paltz lengthens break
All State University of New York classes will be taught online, instead of in person, for the final two months of the spring 2020 semester amid concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.
“This will help us reduce density and reduce the spread of this virus,” Cuomo tweeted.
SUNY New Paltz, meanwhile, announced that in addition to shifting to online instruction, it is extending its spring break by a week and canceling all campus events through April 19, with the exception of athletic competitions, which will be held without spectators.
The changes announced by Cuomo, which also will apply to the state’s community colleges and City University of New York campuses, will take effect March 19.
Cuomo said SUNY and CUNY campuses “will release students to the best of their ability” next Thursday but that exceptions will be made for work that must be done on site, such as lab projects.
Cuomo’s special counsel, Beth Garvey, said dorms will stay open, as needed, to accommodate students.
Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson said in a prepared statement that SUNY officials “believe we are prepared and wellpositioned to take advantage of remote instruction to further our student’s education during this crisis.”
SUNY has about 416,000 students across 64 campuses.
Locally, SUNY has the four-year college in New Paltz and two-year community colleges in Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia, Orange and Sullivan counties.
SUNY New Paltz will be on spring break the weeks of March 16-20 and March 23-27. The break originally was to be only the first of those weeks.
In a statement on its website (newpaltz.edu/ coronavirus-info), SUNY New Paltz said Wednesday that in-person classes will continue through the end of this week, and online-only instruction will begin March 30.
The college also said that, starting March 23, only students who live on campus will be allowed in the residence halls, along with essential employees.
On Monday, the private Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh announced it was closing its campus through at least March 30 and switching to onlineonly instruction, joining a growing number of colleges and universities across New York and the United States that are canceling in-person classes due to concerns about the virus.
There were about 215 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York state as of Wednesday, including two in Ulster County.
The vast majority of New York’s cases are in the New Rochelle area, in Westchester County.
There have been more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 across the U.S. and about 118,000 worldwide. The death toll Wednesday stood at 33 in the U.S. and 4,291 worldwide. There have been no COVID-19 deaths in New York state.