Michigan State University president Samuel Stanley announced the school will move to online-only courses for the 2020 fall semester. Just a few weeks ago, Stanley encouraged MSU students to stay at home if possible.
Here is what Samuel Stanley wrote in the statement released today:
Our decision in March to transition to remote classes and have more employees work remotely was the right one. Since that time, we’ve worked diligently to create new approaches to educational and enrichment opportunities for our students, while always keeping health and safety foremost in mind. Our entire process stems from values-based decisions and constant evaluation and re-evaluation, as the nature of the pandemic changes.
But given the current status of the virus in our country — particularly what we are seeing at other institutions as they re-populate 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.
So, effective immediately, we are asking undergraduate students who planned to live in our residence halls this fall to stay home and continue their education with MSU remotely. While a vast majority of our classes already were offered in remote formats, we will work the next two weeks to transition those that were in-person or hybrid to remote formats.
