UCLA to suspend in-person classes until April 10 to limit spread of coronavirus

This post was updated March 10 at 7:45 p.m.

UCLA will be suspending all in-person classes starting Wednesday in order to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, university officials announced Tuesday.

The university will be transitioning to online learning platforms through April 10, the end of the second week of spring quarter, said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement. Additionally, winter quarter final exams will be offered remotely, Block added.   

The transition is intended to limit the spread of the disease. However, there are no confirmed cases currently at UCLA. 

The university announced that three students were tested for COVID-19 on Friday, but all three tests came back negative. 

UCLA is also encouraging students to start spring quarter remotely from home, but university housing will remain open, Block said. 

The campus itself will remain open, including all hospitals, research laboratories and on-campus restaurants and stores, according to an Associated Students UCLA statement. ASUCLA will increase staffing to clean locations more frequently and distribute hand sanitizer throughout the stores and restaurants. 

The UCLA Store is working to restock on hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies, the Ackerman Union statement read.

All UCLA home games will be spectator-free through April 10. The university is also working to cancel nonessential gatherings of more than 100 people.

The transition follows other universities across the state, including UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, USC, UC Santa Barbara and Stanford University, who have all already made the transition to online classes at least temporarily. 

Angela Lee, a social welfare graduate student, said she thinks the announcement was late because other schools already announced they were closing or canceling classes.

“They need to show concern for the students and faculty,” she said. “It was a bit late. … We were all waiting for it.”

Multiple classes canceled finals entirely. Others made other accommodations, such as Communication 187: “Ethical and Policy Issues in Institutions of Mass Communication,” whose professor will be emailing out its final at the beginning of its scheduled exam period and requiring students turn in their answers by email or in person by the end. 

Rashell Khalfin had two in-class finals scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. She said she was stressed when she first heard the news.

“But then my geography professor emailed my class and said that everyone gets an automatic 95% on the exam, so now I’m way less stressed,” said Khalfin, a second-year psychology and linguistics student. 

Kailey Brodeur said she will need to figure out how to approach finals because review sessions and office hours were canceled.

“I like studying with other people,” said Brodeur, a third-year physiological sciences student. “I think it’ll be a little harder to study on my own and try to learn everything on my own.”

Brodeur, who is from Rhode Island, said she is worried about whether the April 10 deadline will be extended and may have to figure out whether she wants to fly home.

“All of my friends, a lot of them are saying that they’re just going home tomorrow,” Khalfin said.