To Parents and Guardians of Undergraduate Students:
We write to inform you that recent Northeast Ohio developments involving COVID-19 have prompted the university to take several significant steps involving teaching and learning. We very much regret the need to disrupt this semester in such a profound manner, but feel this choice is required for the health and safety of the campus community.
Within this message, we will address three topics:
I. Remote delivery of education
II. Request for students living on campus to move home
III. Support and services for those students remaining in our residence halls.
I. Remote delivery of education
Effective Wednesday, March 18, the university will transition to remote delivery of education for nearly all of our programs.
The single exception involves those students participating in clinical activities as part of their academic preparation; in those instances, the deans of the respective schools will provide direct guidance regarding which clinical experiences will continue.
To allow faculty time to prepare for this transition, all classes (on- and off-campus) are canceled Monday and Tuesday (March 16-17). As of this writing, we plan to continue remote delivery of education from March 18 through Monday, April 6.
In between, we will closely monitor COVID-19 developments within our region and nationwide, and will communicate any changes to that end date as quickly as possible.
II. Request for students living on campus to move home
We are amid the university’s spring break. Those who have traveled outside of Cleveland this week are encouraged to return to their family homes; those who stayed on campus this week also are encouraged to go home to their families. Those who need to retrieve additional items from their on-campus housing before returning home are, of course, permitted to do so.
III. Support and services for those students remaining in our residence halls
We understand that some of our students with extenuating circumstances will have to stay in the residence halls. For those individuals, the university will provide meals, cleaning and maintenance; in addition, health and counseling will continue, and adult residence life staff will be present and provide some small group activities.
We recognize that all of these changes represent significant disruptions to the semester, and that many of you will have additional questions. We are developing information to address many of those items, and will share it as soon as possible.
For now, please know that the health and well-being of our students is the university’s highest priority. We regret that circumstances related to COVID-19 require these difficult choices, and appreciate your patience and understanding as we implement them.
Barbara R. Snyder
President
Ben Vinson III
Provost and Executive Vice President