NC State to move undergraduate classes online after new COVID-19 cases, clusters reported
N.C. State will move undergraduate classes to online-only for the remainder of the fall semester after seeing a spike in coronavirus cases and a rapid increase in the number of students in quarantine and isolation, the university announced Thursday.
Chancellor Randy Woodson announced the decision in a school-wide email, citing off-campus gatherings, clusters of the coronavirus in Greek Village houses and more than 500 students who are forced to quarantine themselves because of their exposure to COVID-19.
“This is a very disappointing thing for us,” Woodson said during a press briefing Thursday on N.C. State’s campus. “We worked hard, the faculty and the staff, all summer long, to get ready to reopen. We followed CDC guidelines, and we did everything we could to make campus safe. And the good news is that campus has been safe. But we’ve seen behaviors off campus that, frankly, are inconsistent with our community standards and have had an impact on our ability to go forward.”
The university has reported five clusters of coronavirus cases — five or more people in close proximity — including two new ones on Thursday. The new clusters are the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house in Greek Village, with seven cases, and five cases associated with two private residences near Park and Bagwell avenues in Raleigh.
That’s in addition to the clusters at an off-campus house and two sorority houses reported already this week.
Of the 500 people who are quarantined, only 50 of them are in residence halls, with the rest coming from off campus, Woodson said. The chancellor said that seven Greek houses are in quarantine and that the university has discovered a number of parties and large gatherings off-campus associated with positive cases.
N.C. State started classes on Aug. 10 and like most colleges, offered a hybrid plan for the fall semester, with many classes held online and some held in-person in university classrooms.
The university’s decision to move classes online follows UNC-Chapel Hill’s similar move earlier this week. Unlike UNC-Chapel Hill, the N.C. State campus will not be closed, and students living in residence halls can stay if they wish, according to a news release.
N.C. State’s online-only classes will begin Aug. 24 for undergraduates. Graduate school classes will continue as a mix of in-person and online instruction, the university said.
“Look, when you look at our students, if you walk across our campus and you interact with our students in dining halls and residence halls, in classrooms, you’ll see that the vast majority, the overwhelming majority, are taking this seriously,” Woodson said. “They’re wearing their face coverings. As simple as that is, it’s very effective. ... What I would say is that the behavior of the few has jeopardized the ability for us to go forward for all of our students in a way that many of our students wanted us to.”
On Thursday morning, N.C. State reported 41 new positive cases in one day, bringing the university’s total to 217 since March. The school’s dashboard says that 39 students are in quarantine or isolation on campus, occupying nearly a quarter of the 166 units the university has available.
Numbers from the Wake County Health Department showed a spike in cases this week among people 18 to 24, reporting 26 new cases Monday, 46 on Tuesday and 82 on Wednesday.
Students can stay on campus
Students who decide to move out of residence halls can break housing contracts without any penalty, the university said, and will be charged pro-rated housing and dining fees based on their time on campus.
Woodson said the changes give students the option to leave campus if they feel unsafe.
“What it really does is that it provides those students who feel unsafe — and there are a number of them given the potential spread of the virus — it gives them the opportunity to continue their education without being on campus,” Woodson said in the press briefing. “Right now, today, we have over 500 students in quarantine for up to two weeks. For those students to continue to receive the education that they deserve and that this university wants for them, online is a great option.”
Students who withdraw by 11:59 p.m. Friday will be refunded 90% of their tuition, a school spokesperson said. After Friday, the refund drops to 50% through Sept. 2, and then 25% through Sept. 30, the spokesperson said.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin applauded NC State’s decision to move to online classes and keep the dorms open.
“I appreciate the fact they are giving students a choice,” she told The News & Observer in a phone interview. “They are not closing the residence halls. And the reason I say that is there are students who have no place to go. One of the things that universities do grapple with is when the dorms are shut down, we have students who are homeless.”
Baldwin didn’t encourage the campus to shift to online classes, she said, adding she didn’t want to “second guess” their decision to open at the start of the semester.
“I think everybody was anxious to try and return to some sort of normalcy, even in these difficult circumstances,” Baldwin said. “Trying to find a balance that is good for students with the social aspects of being in school but also continuing their education so I understand why. But I also want to commend them for moving swiftly in dealing with the situation.”
UNC System president points to behavior
In April, interim UNC System President Bill Roper made the decision that all UNC System schools would reopen in August for the fall semester. Following decisions at UNC-Chapel Hill and now N.C. State to revert to remote-only classes, current UNC System President Peter Hans said student behavior led to the increases in COVID-19 cases.
“Over the spring and summer every institution prepared for the fall semester under the guidance of well-known public health officials,” Hans said in a statement Thursday after N.C. State’s announcement. “The planning reflected the fact that each university in the system is different — with diverse student populations, geographical locations and varied social cultures. This hard work is being undermined by a very small number of students behaving irresponsibly off campus, which unfairly punishes the vast majority of their classmates who are following the rules.”
Woodson echoed Hans in suggesting that student behavior, largely off-campus, was responsible for school’s change of course. There are few options, though, in policing behavior off-campus, Woodson said.
“We have very limited things that we can do to manage behavior in off-campus apartment complexes,” Woodson said. “Having said that, though, I believe that with the state department of health and Wake County, we can remind those owners and those communities that they do have a state mandate to follow. The governor has made it clear that outside gatherings of greater than 25 are forbidden.”
Baldwin said patrols haven’t increased at N.C. State, and 911 calls to areas near campus are down from previous years, Baldwin said. She also hasn’t heard from constituents who live near campus worried about the increased COVID-19 cases.
“The police chief has told her officers to be very firm in their warning, but I will say officers have said there are a lot of students wearing masks,” Baldwin said. “
Students weighing their options
On campus Thursday, as N.C. State announced the undergraduate changes, students appeared supportive of remote classes.
“Having classes online is just best for everybody and even if people have to go back home, that’s kind of good too, because there’s a lot of people on campus,” said Ayana Mickles, an N.C. State sophomore, in an interview on campus. “There’s way too many people to control this COVID situation.”
On Thursday, NC State’s athletic department said practices and workouts would continue and that student athletes will remain in on and off-campus housing.
“N.C. State is progressing with the expectation to compete this fall and will be transparent with our student-athletes and programs in the communication of our plans,” NC State Athletics said in a release. “We will work in conjunction with our campus, the ACC, state and local health officials towards the safest and most responsible course of action.”
But like UNC students, N.C. State students face the expenses incurred with moving to campus for in-person classes, including leases they already had signed at off-campus apartments.
Second-year student Kimberly Hernández, who returned to the U.S. mainland from her home in Puerto Rico for classes, is angry about it.
“I just made my parents pay for two plane tickets, one to get here and to return, I had to pay vet bills to bring my dog here, to fill out [pet] forms for the plane and to fill out forms for the housing,” said Hernández. “It’s like I did all this for nothing.”
Anna Johnson and Aaron Sánchez-Guerra contributed to this story.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 2:48 PM with the headline "NC State to move undergraduate classes online after new COVID-19 cases, clusters reported."
