Pitt decides fall classes must stay online through mid-September
The University of Pittsburgh, where fall classes began Wednesday, has decided to extend online-only instruction beyond this week to Sept. 14 due to COVID-19, a move that comes one day after Carnegie Mellon University said its fall semester would begin for undergraduates online.
Pitt also confirmed late Wednesday it has placed five fraternities and sororities on interim suspension as it investigates reports they may have violated health and safety guidelines plus student conduct and Greek Life rules. It did not specify what Alpha Tau Omega, Chi Omega, Kappa Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Phi Epsilon are suspected of doing — or if it is tied to the decision to extend online classes into the middle of next month.
However, a Pitt student affairs administrator on Wednesday warned separately that large gatherings and parties were jeopardizing the university’s attempt to safely reopen.
The five chapters involved “must cease all organizational operations until further notice,” Pitt spokesman Kevin Zwick said Wednesday evening.
Word of the online class extension came in a note to campus earlier Wednesday from Provost Ann Cudd.
“Although I had hoped that after beginning the first week of the semester remotely we would move immediately to mostly in-person classes, we now think it prudent to extend the remote period until Sept. 14,” Ms. Cudd told campus in an email Wednesday afternoon. “This adjustment to the schedule will allow for the completion of staged arrival and shelter-in-place procedures so that all students can start in-person classes at the same time.”
She said additional information about what in-person classes will take place while Pitt is in the “Elevated Risk posture” would be forthcoming.
Pitt students already have moved into residence halls, off-campus apartments and some $22 million in hotel rooms in Oakland the university purchased to help reduce occupancy in its campus dorms.
About 29,000 students attend Pitt’s main campus, and administrators have put in place a system in which the percentage of in-person versus online classes can adjust back and forth during the fall as virus conditions change.
Pitt reported low infection rates based on early testing of students who arrived on campus — less than 1% — but officials, including Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner, are warning campus the university’s reopening plans are jeopardized by large parties reported in the last several days where students were not wearing masks or sitting at least 6 feet apart.
“Let me be clear: Your behavior is threatening a successful fall term for all of us,” he wrote in a campus note Wednesday.
The school, which tweaked its student code of conduct to include pandemic-related health behaviors, said it is prepared to bar offending students from buildings, including residence halls, and issue suspensions. Like other schools, Pitt is requiring face masks be worn on campus and social distancing rules be followed.
Elsewhere in the nation, colleges and universities have been forced to make adjustments, even after students moved in, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where classes as of Wednesday had been moved online.
That school reported scores of infections and multiple clusters linked to residence halls and at least one fraternity house.
The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 170,000.
Pitt noted the North Carolina situation in its correspondence to students.
“Your actions have consequences,” Mr. Bonner said.