NYU Moves to Remote Classes Starting Wednesday

Classes will be held remotely the rest of the semester.

By Sophie Grieser and John DiLillo

Amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City and State, NYU has announced via email that it will be holding classes remotely starting March 11.

According to the email, sent around 6 p.m., NYU will start the “transition to remote instruction” from March 11–13. Spring break is scheduled as normal. “However,” the email read, “rather than convening on campus to recommence in-person classes on March 23, we will continue to hold classes remotely during that week, March 23-March 27.”

President Andrew Hamilton has since sent an email update on Thursday, March 12, around 6 p.m., stating, “We do not know when in-person classes will resume. However, given the aggressive steps being taken by government at all levels to check the spread of the coronavirus, we can reasonably predict it will be further in the future than we anticipated or hoped.”

The email continued, “At this point, none of us should contemplate recommencing in-person classes before April 19. This longer time period will help in limiting the spread of the coronavirus in New York. It will allow everyone to more fully embrace remotely-held classes, and it will give us more time to judge the right point to reassemble safely.”

Since, President Andrew Hamilton sent an email on Monday, March 16, stating, “Today we are taking another important step to help safeguard your health and help check the virus’ spread [by] closing the student residences at our New York campus — students must be out by no later than March 22, and preferably within 48 hours — and directing all students to return home for the remainder of the semester.”

He added the university would continue to “hold all classes and examinations remotely through the semester’s end.”

Residence halls were to remain open during remote classes, are although no guests were to be permitted, even with an NYU ID, meaning that commuter students and others in off-campus housing were not allowed inside the dorms.

Food service would continue only at three dining halls: Kimmel, Lipton, and Jasper Kane. Those have since closed, along with all other in person university operations.

Additionally, the March 12 memorandum stated that all global sites, including Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, will make the switch to remote classes for the rest of this week.

Students in Madrid, London, Berlin, Paris, and Prague were sent an email Tuesday, March 10 by NYU Global Programs, informing them that all academic centers in Europe will be closing and strongly urged them to make arrangements to go home.

“Until now, we have left it to you and your families to determine whether or not you should remain at your current site, or return home,” the email said. “However, several developments over the past day — including the closing of universities in Madrid and Prague — have caused us to reconsider our position.”

Students were not initially given a mandatory leave-by date; however, the email stated numerous times that the university is advising they go. Residence halls and homestays at these global sites were to remain open, but academic centers have closed. All internships in Europe and student activities are suspended while the university does remote classes.

Other global sites (like Accra, Sydney, and Tel Aviv) have also suspended in-person classes, albeit a bit later.

The change to remote courses was first indicated when an IT Service Desk emailed its student employees Wednesday, appearing to indicate the university’s plan.

“You have heard or will soon hear how NYU will be shifting to a ‘remote instruction’ model in response to Covid19,” wrote John Polemis, an IT Service Desk supervisor. “This means classes will be held over zoom [sic] in most cases.”

However, a reply email sent later in the day by IT Director of Operations Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy clarified that Polemis’ email was about providing additional support, not that classes were definitively closing Wednesday.

“Once we have official information from School Leadership it will be communicated through appropriate channels,” Krishnamoorthy wrote.

Last week, the New York campus canceled all upcoming non-essential travel and urged students to rethink traveling internationally over spring break. Additionally, study abroad students were offered the option of returning home and continuing their classes remotely if they wanted.

The coronavirus, which originated in late December in Wuhan, China, has been spreading globally over the past few months. NYU Shanghai closed its campus until Feb. 17 before continuing classes online. NYU Florence similarly closed in late February, leaving students just days to leave the country. The Abu Dhabi campus has also moved to online classes until at least April. These campuses are also continuing classes remotely through Zoom.

Zoom is an online web conferencing system used to teach classes remotely at a pre-scheduled time. A Zoom tab was added to NYU Classes late Tuesday evening; the university has used the website as a possible remote-study option for students studying abroad.

The news comes after Columbia University announced it would cancel classes for two days and move its classes online indefinitely. Hofstra and Fordham have also taken steps to cancel classes.

As of publication, New York City has 16 confirmed coronavirus cases.

University spokesman John Beckman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article will be updated with any developments.

Additional reporting by Izzie Ramirez and Maggie Chirdo.

Update: March 9, 2020

This article has been updated to include an email by IT Director of Operations Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy.

Update: March 9, 2020

This article has been updated to include new instructions regarding remote classes from a university memorandum email.

Update: March 10, 2020

This article has been updated to include new instructions for students living on the university’s European global sites.

Update: March 12, 2020

This article has been updated to include an email from President Andrew Hamilton about extending remote classes to April 19, 2020.

Update: March 16, 2020

This article has been updated to include an email from President Andrew Hamilton about closing dorm residences and extending remote classes for the remainder of the semester.