University of Missouri suspends classes amid coronavirus fears
The University of Missouri, because of concerns over the new coronavirus, is suspending all classes through Sunday. On Monday, classes will resume, but they’ll be delivered online only.
Update: The University of Kansas announced similar measures, canceling classes next week to prepare to teach only online beginning March 23.
Chancellor Alexander Cartwright, in a statement Wednesday, told the university community that some journalism students and faculty had attended a conference in New Orleans over the weekend and came in contact with a person who tested “presumptive positive” for the virus, known as COVID-19.
None are showing any symptoms, “and their risk of contracting COVID-19 is considered low,” the statement said. They are isolating themselves at home and following public health and medical professionals’ guidance.
Cartwright said there are no known cases of the disease on the MU campus in Columbia. The university will remain open, with faculty and staff reporting to work. Dorms and food service will also remain open, said Christian Basi, university spokesman.
In the Kansas City region, one case was reported in Johnson County, the first in Kansas, and one was reported in St. Louis County, the first in Missouri.
Suspending classes for the rest of the week will give faculty members a chance to put in place plans for online classes, Basi said.
Faculty have been working on their plans for the past few weeks. How those classes will be delivered will vary among instructors. For example, Basi said, one might just record lectures for students to listen to online, while another might do a video chat.
Professors will deliver remote classes through March 20. The university was scheduled to go on spring break the week of March 23.
“That gives us an opportunity to isolate the campus and do a thorough disinfecting,” Basi said. The plan is that in-person classes will resume after the break on Monday, March 30.
Of MU’s 30,000 students, about 7,000 live in dorms, Basi said, meaning almost three-quarters of the students have no need to be on campus, “decreasing a significant portion of the risk.”
Allison Smith, a junior studying political science at Mizzou, said she would likely travel back home to Kansas City to be with her family and continue her course studies remotely.
“I feel very conflicted about the entire situation,” she told The Star. “On one hand, I absolutely understand that the university has student and faculty’s safety as their number one priority. On the other hand, it’s going to be difficult for students and professors who do lab classes that require hands-on learning.
“I’m very glad that the university has not decided to force students to vacate dorms, like other universities have done.”
In addition to the class suspension, all university-related international and domestic travel is being halted until April 12. Nonessential university events are canceled until March 29. But some meetings and sporting events will continue until further notice.
The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a pandemic. By late Wednesday in-person classes had been canceled or postponed at more than 100 universities across the country. In this region, in addition to MU, St. Louis University, Webster University and Maryville University have taken similar actions. Washington University in St. Louis suspended in-person classes until the end of April.
Officials at other campuses in the Kansas City area said they have contingency plans that include, among other things, going to online course work. They are meeting on a daily basis to monitor the situation.
“We have emergency management teams at the Lawrence and KU Medical Center campuses that continue to meet regularly to plan for potential scenarios,” KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson told The Star in an email Wednesday. “Each of these teams has about 25 people from key offices on the campuses, and behind the scenes are people in those individual offices that are at work on contingency plans.”
Wednesday’s news prompted many questions from the MU community about the university’s plans for upcoming concerts and athletic events as well as how classes will be conducted after students return from spring break.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 4:58 PM.
