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The University of Vermont, Champlain College, Vermont Law School and St. Michael’s College are switching to online classes to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Norwich University is extending this week’s spring break by a week.
University of Vermont President Suresh Garimella described the move as “exercising an abundance of caution,” but said it was needed to protect the health and safety of the community.
“This decisive action reflects our commitment to help slow the spread of the virus, while also promoting the academic progress of our students and protecting the health and safety of our community,” he said in a letter Wednesday.
Champlain’s switch to online instruction is effective March 23 and will be in effect for at least three weeks, said President Laurie Quinn on Wednesday.
“Students and faculty should expect that a longer period of remote instruction is likely,” Quinn said.
At UVM and Champlain, undergraduates are now on spring break. The facilities will remain open and at UVM, employees will be expected to report to work, Garimella added.
UVM has about 11,000 undergraduate students, and Garimella’s letter was directed at them, instructing graduate students to continue their work as described in a separate communication they will receive. For undergraduates, in-person classes March 16 and March 17 will be canceled, and when classes start again on March 18, they will be carried out remotely.
Vermont Law School in South Royalton also announced Wednesday that it is closing its campus to students starting on Monday, March 16, and will begin remote classes on Wednesday, March 18.
“Any community member who has internet connectivity issues should contact the IT department to find a solution,” the law school said in a news release. “We have been in touch with our accrediting agencies and are confident that these changes will not run afoul of any standards and guidance.”
St. Michael’s College in Colchester announced Wednesday that it would begin online instruction for its students on March 25, after a two-day extension of next week’s spring break.
In a note to the college community, President Lorraine Sterritt said online instruction will continue until at least April 13. Classes this Thursday and Friday will be held on campus as scheduled.
The college is canceling all public events on campus until at least April 14. However, the campus remains open for employees and certain students allowed to remain on campus.
The notice said that St. Mike’s would decide on any extension by April 9.
Norwich University has notified students that it is extending spring break by a week and is canceling all on-campus events except athletic events through March 23.
Students are on break this week, and as of now, they are being instructed to return to the Northfield campus on Sunday, March 22. Faculty and staff are expected at work on Monday, March 16, according to the website.
“Delaying students’ return enables the university to best prepare for the remainder of the spring semester in consultation and with guidance from government officials,” President Richard Schneider wrote to students in a notice published on the school’s website.
Next week Norwich faculty on campus will get instruction and technical support to transition their classes to a distant learning format.
Gary Derr, UVM’s vice president for operations and public safety, and Annie Stevens, UVM’s vice provost of student affairs, said university officials had been discussing UVM’s response to the disease since reports of its impact in China started surfacing at the end of January.
“In the last two weeks, we kicked into high gear around, ‘What does remote instruction look like? How do we get the campus ready?’” said Stevens.
On campus Wednesday, students were trying to get more information about things like completing classes online, and whether they could stay in the dorms, said Emily Fletcher, a senior from St. Johnsbury who is an animal science major.
“I think they’re just still trying to figure it out,” said Fletcher of the administration.
A nationwide phenomenon
Schools around the country are making similar decisions this week as the virus spreads. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday declared the virus a pandemic, a global phenomenon with a wide-ranging impact.
It’s not the first campus emergency for either Stevens or Derr. Stevens was working at the University of California at Berkeley during the 1989 earthquake that shut down the Bay Bridge, and also fires in Oakland that forced school officials to evacuate the dorms. Derr was at the University of Hartford during a measles outbreak many years ago.
“We had to immunize all the students and had a situation where we were hosting a basketball tournament at the Hartford Civic Center, playing empty arenas,” he said.
But “the Hartford situation was limited to the University of Hartford; it was not 3,000-plus institutions all across the country,” Derr said. He thinks the COVID-19 response will inform the way such institutions approach emergencies in the future. “When the right moment occurs, the one benefit we’ll have is the opportunity to look at our continuity of operations plans and refresh them and test them to see how they hold,” he said.
Working out the details
As of March 18, UVM will limit indoor events to 25 attendees or fewer. Officials said it’s too soon to say how long the measures will remain in effect. For seniors wondering if they can return to campus to graduate, “we are not in a position to address future events, such as Commencement, at this time,” Garimella said in his statement.
Champlain College is putting meetings online and cancelling visits to campus, including Admitted Student Days scheduled for April 3-4 and April 17-18.
The adjustment to online will be smooth in some cases. UVM sophomore Tessa Brimblecombe noted she’s already taking one online class. She said she was wondering how her Russian class would be conducted.
“What we do is talk back and forth, and ask each other questions, and work off the group dynamic,” she said. “So I’m wondering how that is going to be structured.”
Middlebury College, 35 miles to the south of UVM’s main campus, made a similar announcement Tuesday. That private liberal arts college has 2,500 students.
Peter VonDoepp, an assistant professor in UVM’s Department of Political Science, said he and many of his colleagues had been expecting UVM to go to online classes.
“Knowing Middlebury is going to this, and Harvard is going to this, we’ve just been waiting,” he said. VonDoepp said he has taught online classes in the past, although those were structured from the outset to be taught in that format. He said it requires professors to get creative with the material to get the students engaged, and make sure they stay engaged.
“It can be effective; there’s no question,” he said. “I do think this is challenging and inconvenient, but that’s the virus, not the decision.”