Molloy College in Rockville Centre has suspended all face-to-face instruction for the next 18 days out of an abundance of caution amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
The college issued a statement Tuesday that there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus at Molloy, but it is suspending in-person classes “for all academic credit coursework at all locations” from Wednesday, March 11, through Saturday, March 28 to be safe. It is also canceling all on-campus events between those dates.
“Faculty will offer classes via alternate delivery methods,” the college said. “Staff and administrators who can work from home may be required to do so until further notice.”
The move came after more than 1,300 people signed an online petition calling for the college to suspend classes.
“The only way to prevent an outbreak on campus is to move classes to a virtual setting,” the organizer wrote in the petition.
“Molloy is a unique situation due to many students participating in the nursing program” said one person who was sharing the petition. “They are at a higher risk of exposure as they practice their clinical exercises.”
He noted that Molloy is close to Mercy Medical Center, where an employee recently became the first person on Long Island to test positive for coronavirus.
Molloy’s move came after Hofstra University canceled classes for a week and several local school districts and private schools canceled classes to allow time for cleaning crews to disinfect their campuses after two school bus drivers were diagnosed with coronavirus.
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