Classes at all Florida universities will now be moving online for the rest of the spring semester. Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for the change during a Tuesday morning press conference. DeSantis said he’s concerned about the large groups of students he’s still seeing near campuses.
“A lot of students have been congregating at the universities and going out and doing things there and that’s not something we want. If you look at the CDC guidance, I think the number one thing is we don’t want large crowds of people congregating right now,” DeSanis said.
DeSantis says the goal of using remote learning is to limit large gatherings. He’s encouraging students who can, to return home for the rest of the semester.
“We don’t want to have thousands of undergraduate students hitting bars—or I guess they can’t do the bars now—but just congregating in a fraternity house or something…because we’re trying to create some social distance,” DeSantis said.
Tuesday evening state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said state colleges would follow suite and also finish out the semester through distance learning.
“Generally speaking, even the professors are doing it by remote accesses,” Corcoran said.
Officials from Florida A&M university say dorms are open for students to collect their belongings. A message from Florida State University urges students who left campus for spring break not return to campus. Officials say they’ll send students information about how to collect their belongings “at a later date.”
Meanwhile guidance from the State University System Board of Governors indicate new plans will need to be made for graduation ceremonies. A statement from the board says “Traditional on-campus commencement ceremonies will not be held in May. Instead, each university is directed to develop an alternate schedule or method of delivery.”
