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Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Will UCLA Follow Berkeley or Harvard Virus Approach?

Although Berkeley - which has a different calendar than UCLA - has shut down in-person courses, UCLA is in a different position since this is the last week of classes and next week is exam week. A sudden shutdown at UCLA could be very disruptive this late in the session.

Harvard is apparently in a situation closer to UCLA's. It has announced it will finish its current session this week and, after spring break, switch to online instruction.

See below from the Daily Crimson:

All Harvard courses will move to remote instruction beginning March 23 as a result of a growing global coronavirus outbreak, University President Lawrence S. Bacow announced in an email Tuesday morning. The University will also ask students not to return from spring break.
The move follows both similar decisions at other Ivy League universities in recent days and rapid changes on campus. As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Massachusetts rises, events and venues have closed, travel restrictions have tightened, and University affiliates have questioned how the disease will affect life and work on campus.
Spring recess officially begins this Saturday and concludes on March 22. The next day, students will attend classes virtually — a possibility Nguyen and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay first raised at a faculty meeting earlier this month. Since then, tabs for the online meeting platform Zoom have popped up on course websites and many faculty have tested it with their classes.
Bacow wrote Monday that Harvard will now strongly discourage gatherings of more than 25 people, a change from the previous guidance to rethink events of 100 or more.
The University previously took a number of steps to reduce risk to affiliates, including launching a dedicated coronavirus website and cancelling Visitas, the visiting weekend for the Class of 2024.
It remains unclear how the outbreak will affect other spring events like alumni reunions, Class Day, and Commencement exercises.

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