Columbia University Moves All Undergrad Classes Online

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Columbia University announced sweeping changes on Friday to the school's undergraduate program for the upcoming term.

In a letter to the Columbia community, President Lee Bollinger said that the university will limit undergraduates allowed to live on campus to only Columbia College and Engineering students who "must be present on campus due to personal or academic circumstances."

Friday's announcement came six weeks after Columbia said that it thought the school would be able to house 60 percent of Columbia College and Engineering undergraduates in residence halls for the fall term.

Due to the limited number of undergraduate students that will now be on campus for the upcoming term, Columbia has also decided to make all undergraduate courses virtual.

"With few undergraduate students living on campus, we have decided that all undergraduate courses will be virtual," Bollinger wrote to the Columbia community. "There is the physical capacity to conduct many undergraduate courses in person, but students now will be living in so many locations, and under such varied circumstances, that online instruction is the only realistic approach."

On the other hand, around 40 percent of all graduate-level courses at Columbia this fall will be hybrid or in-person.

Columbia said it will continue to evaluate undergraduate housing options for the spring term.

You can read Bollinger's full letter to the school's community on Columbia's website.