TOPEKA, Kansas — The University of Kansas and Kansas State University have both delayed the start of in-person classes until March 23, with the possibility of continuing online-only for weeks after that, in the wake of the continued spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
KU decided Wednesday night, and K-State put out a statement on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, top administrators at other public universities in the state made clear they may follow suit with their own campus shutdowns.
The Kansas Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public universities, voted Wednesday night to allow each school to make its own decision about how to address the coronavirus — whether to extend spring break and switch to online classes.
Most modifications to the academic calendar require Board of Regents approval.
In an emergency meeting Wednesday night, the regents and the heads of KU, K-State and other schools weighed the costs and benefits of keeping students, many of whom are on spring break, from returning to campus for at least another two weeks.
If Kansas colleges shut down their classrooms and go online to slow the spread of the virus, they would join more than 100 schools around the country that have sent students home. Among them: the University of Missouri, Harvard University, Syracuse University, Rice University and all the public colleges in Ohio.
Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said there has been no community transmission of the coronavirus in the state. So far, Kansas has recorded a single confirmed case of the illness in Johnson County — a woman diagnosed after traveling to the northeastern U.S.
But Norman warned officials during the meeting that people returning to campus from other states or countries could easily be carrying the virus.
Norman suggested sending students home rather than risk infections from interactions in dorms, dining halls and off-campus hangouts,
“We’re on a banana peel right now,” he told the board. “It would take one or a small cluster of people to come back and then to infect people around them.”
“The safest thing to do,” he said, “is cancel classes.”
The most likely plan, some university officials said, is extending their spring breaks by one week to give instructors and staff time to prepare materials for online teaching, then instructing students not to come back to campus.
It would be better to be overly cautious than underprepared, said KU Chancellor Doug Girod. He noted that a couple of KU faculty have been exposed to the coronavirus at conferences and a family in Lawrence is under investigation for exposure.
“I would argue we would hold profound liability in this situation,” he said. “If somebody dies on my campus, I’m going to get sued.”
Girod said KU plans to reach out to the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and city manager for collaboration on keeping students from congregating in businesses off campus.
