SARASOTA – Early Wednesday afternoon the State University System of Florida ordered all colleges to begin planning to make the move to remote instructions meaning students will be taking an online class approach for all their classes to reduce the chances of outbreaks of coronavirus on college campuses.
“This is real time dynamic situation, they’re going to constantly reassess, but all the instructors have been told get on a virtual footing,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Just as students are beginning to head out or return from spring break, several state college officials made the choice to make the switch from meeting in the classrooms to a more online class approach over concerns of spreading the new COVID-19 virus on college campuses.
New College of Florida is one of the many institutions in the state to adopt this approach. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure that we have a successful semester, that all of our students are able to complete their course work on time,” said Director of Marketing & Communications Ann Comer-Wood.
Students at New College are about to dive into Spring Break beginning on Friday. However, the college is following the State University System of Florida guidelines; indicating students are being asked to stay home during the break and are being informed all classes will now be taught online for the next two weeks.
“We will then be offering our classes online through Canvas, which is our online platform,” said Comer-Wood.
Though Governor DeSantis told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday this approach will minimally disrupt the semester. New College student Leonor Muñoz disagrees saying she will be one of the many students impacted by this choice.
“There’s lots of practicum classes, so labs and sculptures. You can’t work on sculpture from home,” said Muñoz. “The good thing is that offices will be open so it’s not going to be completely shut down, which I think will help in not stopping momentum.”
New College will also require students to stay completely off campus including those living on college grounds; but are taking applications for students who have nowhere to go to remain in their dorms. New College officials say they hope to return to normal operations by April 4th.
SNN reached out to other schools in the area, USF Manatee/Sarasota are also switching to online classes for the next two weeks. State College of Florida officials say they’ll be operating as normal, their spring break already passed, but they are closely monitoring the situation.
