North Carolina Universities Move Classes Online After Campus Virus Outbreaks
East Carolina University and University of North Carolina at Charlotte are moving courses online in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the universities announced Sunday.
ECU will move undergraduate courses online for the remainder of the fall semester, beginning Aug. 26. Undergraduate classes are suspended Monday and Tuesday at ECU to adjust to the change in the schedule.
Professional and graduate courses will continue as they are currently operating at ECU. Fall classes began at ECU on Aug. 10.
University residence halls will begin move-out this week with the conclusion on Aug. 30. The university will work with international students, student athletes and hardship cases who apply to continue to live on campus, the university said.
UNC at Charlotte will begin classes as scheduled on Sept. 7, but it’s delaying the start of undergraduate and graduate in-person instruction for three weeks until Thursday, Oct. 1. All instruction will begin as planned on the first day of classes Sept. 7, but will now be delivered online.
UNC at Charlotte will continue to offer on-campus housing and dining services for students who are already on-campus, international students and others with approved extenuating circumstances. Move-in to residence halls is scheduled for Sept. 26-29.
On Saturday the University of North Carolina identified two more clusters of COVID-19 cases.
The clusters were identified at Craige residence hall and Alpha Delta Pi sorority house, the university said.
“The individuals in these clusters have been identified and are isolating and receiving medical monitoring,” the university said in the announcement Saturday afternoon. “We have also notified the Orange County Health Department and are working with them to identify additional potential exposures.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services defines a cluster as five or more cases that are deemed in close proximity in location, and location is defined as a single residential hall or dwelling.
On Friday, UNC-Chapel Hill alerted students, staff and faculty that a cluster of COVID-19 cases turned up at Carmichael residence hall. Six other clusters reported at the school were found at residence halls and fraternity houses. UNC switched to remote learning Wednesday.
Also on Friday, North Carolina State University officials reported four new coronavirus clusters on Friday involving 51 cases in three sorority houses and one fraternity house. In the past week, N.C. State reported seven coronavirus clusters, leading the school to announce Thursday that it would move all undergraduate classes online starting Monday.