Law schools across the nation are canceling in-person classes or closing up campus amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
The University of Washington was the first to announce a university-wide closure, telling students on March 6th that all classes would move to online until the spring quarter. The news came after one first-year law student was put in self-quarantine after possible exposure to the coronavirus, Law.com reports.
Stanford University has also followed suit announcing that it will move all classes online and asked students to also leave campus until the end of March after a faculty member tested positive for the virus.
Columbia University announced the suspension of classes Tuesday as it was in the process of shifting classes online and canceled “non-essential” events.
“We all know this is a rapidly evolving and very challenging situation,” Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, says in a press release on Thursday. “Yesterday afternoon, the World Health Organization officially declared this to be a pandemic. Thus far, we continue to have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our campuses. Just to be clear, the principle that has guided us up to this point is to maintain the mission of the University as much as possible consistent with preserving the health of every part of our community.”
Other schools to announce a shift to online classes and closure of events across campus include Fordham University, University of California Berkeley, Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law, New York Law School, and more.
Sources: Law.com, Columbia University, KRON 4
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