Coronavirus: SUNY, CUNY Schools Switching To Distance Learning

NEW YORK STATE — All SUNY and CUNY schools will switch to distance learning next week over coronavirus fears, changing the educational plans of more than a million students.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Wednesday. Students in campuses across the state will begin remote learning March 19. They will not be forced to leave campus, but they may be encouraged to go elsewhere. Students with hardships who have nowhere else to go will be allowed to remain on campus, Cuomo said.

"They're not evicting anyone," the governor said at a news conference Wednesday. "They're not closing the dorms and kicking you out. They're doing distance learning. You can go home and do it by distance. You can go wherever you want and do it by distance."

There are five SUNY schools and affiliated schools on Long Island: Stony Brook University, SUNY College at Old Westbury, Farmingdale State College, and both Nassau and Suffolk community colleges. The 64 colleges across the state have about 1.4 million students, according to the SUNY website. CUNY schools have nearly 275,000 students enrolled.

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The changes will last at least until the end of the semester. In-person classes will mostly be canceled. Some classes that require in-person teaching, such as labs, will go on, but there may be changes. Cuomo said classes could be held at different times of the day to break up the number of students on campus. Classes could also be broken up into smaller groups of students.

The dispersal of students will also affect graduations. The expectation is that many graduation ceremonies at SUNY and CUNY schools will not happen in person, officials said.

Multiple other colleges across Long Island have also closed, or are considering doing so, as the number of confirmed cases topped 1,000 in the United States, with 29 deaths. In New York, 212 people tested positive for coronavirus as of noon Wednesday.

Adelphi University was the latest college to announce closures due to the coronavirus. Hofstra University announced on Monday that it was canceling classes for a week. Nassau Community College canceled classes Wednesday and Molloy College also announced it was canceling classes until March 28 out of caution.

Nassau County continues to have the highest number of coronavirus cases, now reaching 28. One of those patients is in serious condition, county officials said Wednesday. Suffolk County saw its cases jump overnight, going from one to six, bringing the total on Long Island to 31. There are 232 people in mandatory or precautionary quarantine in Nassau and eight in mandatory quarantine in Suffolk.

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