University of Idaho courses will be online-only starting March 23, President C. Scott Green announced in an email to campus.
“Campus will remain open with all regular services available. The residence halls and campus dining options will remain open,” according to the email. “Students in Greek chapter houses should check with their chapter leadership regarding housing options.”
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Idaho public four-year universities also discussed how they will handle online courses during a State Board of Education meeting Friday afternoon.
Boise State University announced they will be moving to an online-only format for the rest of the semester. Idaho State University has moved up its spring break and will go online-only after. Lewis-Clark State College will test online-only courses on Monday and Tuesday.
LCSC will return to classes as usual March 18 to 27, unless new information becomes available, according to their website. After spring break on March 30 the school will continue the semester online.
Idaho State Board of Education has made a unanimous motion to support Idaho college presidents in transferring to online distance learning.
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A decision on UI’s commencement was discussed during the meeting as well and Green said a final decision has not been made but one will come in the weeks to follow.
“We have not addressed the commencement situation yet. It is my hope that this thing could be contained and that at the end of the day we’ll be able to hold a commencement,” Green said. “But, we’re also realistic that we need to make that call within the next few weeks. And that it may not be possible to hold commencement given what we will know in just a few weeks.”
These decisions correlated as Idaho confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Argonaut will continue to cover this as more information becomes known.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee