When it comes to COVID-19, college campuses are on the front lines of what could be an epidemic in this country. Sandy Hausman reports on why – and what they’re doing to prepare.
Universities are especially vulnerable to the new coronavirus for two reasons according to Karin Fischer, a correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education. First, she says, many of their students and teachers are travelers.
“Faculty going back and forth for research and conferences. You have students coming from all over the world," she explains. "There are more than a million students from abroad studying in the United States right now.”
Second, she notes, a campus is – by definition – a place where people gather.
“You have a lot of people living and learning in close quarters. If this is an illness that spreads by contagion, then campuses are places where you could have some heightened risk.”
Which is why some schools, like the University of Washington have canceled in-person classes, and many professors will be instructing online.
“They did not close their dining halls or the dormitories," she adds, " because they have students from around the country and around the world. They have 8,000 international students.”
Many, such as the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, are limiting school-related travel and asking community members to quarentine themselves if they’re returning from China, Italy, Iran or Japan. Liberty University has canceled all university-sponsored through the summer.
Fischer says most colleges have dealt with emergencies before, but COVID-19 is different. “Most the emergencies that colleges respond to are short-term occurrences. We could be dealing with this easily for the rest of the semester.”
And with March Madness on the horizon, the NCAA has formed a Covid-19 panel to consider holding games without fans.
Click here for more COVID-19 information from the Virginia Department of Health
