The University of Wisconsin-Madison is suspending its face-to-face classes when students return from next week’s spring break on Monday, March 23.
Instead, the university will offer “alternative delivery of classes,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced in a campus-wide email.
UW-Madison is asking students living in the dormitories to take their belongings to their permanent residences and not return to campus residence halls until at least April 10. But it is not banning students from the dorms.
Two cases of COVID-19, the disease largely referred to as coronavirus, have been confirmed in Dane County, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
The alternate delivery of classes, likely moving online, will continue at least through Friday, April 10, Blank said.
The move follows other universities taking similar precautionary measures. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee announced Tuesday it was extending its spring break one week, and moving the majority of its classes online when students return to instruction on Monday, March 30.
Older adults and people with chronic medical conditions are at higher risk from COVID-19, according to the CDC.
To avoid contracting the virus, and to slow its spread, wash your hands often, avoid close contact with people who are sick, and stay home if you are sick.
Consult the CDC website for more information on the coronavirus.
Lauren Henning, junior investigator, assisted with this story.
Peter Cameron writes for The Badger Project, a Wisconsin-based nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative journalism organization. He can be reached at pcameron@thebadgerproject.
