Wichita State University cancels classes, moves online to halt coronavirus spread

Wichita State University is canceling in-person classes next week and moving classes online after spring break amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Wichita State joins other Kansas Regents universities in moving classes online to curb the spread of COVID-19. Spring break for students was planned to start March 23.

“This is a situation that has all of us concerned, yet we must not become panicked,” Wichita State President Jay Golden said in a written statement.

The announcement came on a day when the NCAA canceled spring sports, Disneyland closed, Broadway suspended shows, stocks plunged despite a $1.5 trillion offer to banks by the Fed and President Donald Trump imposed restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Europe.

Delays in testing make an accurate count of infected Americans nearly impossible. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,500 people in 45 states and Washington, D.C., had tested positive for coronavirus. Four of those cases are in Kansas, all in the northeast part of the state. At least 39 U.S. patients with the virus have died, according to the New York Times.

Wichita did not have any confirmed cases as of Thursday afternoon.

Wichita State students will be allowed to stay in the dorms and the university will continue offering food service.

Wichita’s Newman University became the first Wichita college to announce plans to extend its spring break by an extra week over concerns about the spread of coronavirus Thursday morning.

On Thursday morning, interim president Teresa Hall Bartels sent a message to the Newman community saying that the school, which starts a week-long spring break on Monday, would not resume face-to-face classes until March 30. Online classes will continue as normal, the e-mail said.

Friends University, which has spring break next week, said Thursday that it was planning to continue with classes and will spend time while students are gone disinfecting. On Friday the university announced that spring break would be extended by one week for all students. Classes will resume on March 30 in an online format, and face-to-face classes will resume on Monday, April 6. All on-campus Fine Arts events are canceled. Friends will continue to update its plan at friends.edu/coronavirus.

The University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Emporia State University, all of which are on spring break now, all also announced over the past two days plans to cancel face-to-face classes next week. Starting March 23, all will conduct classes online only until further notice.

Fort Hays State University will go online-only on March 23, following spring break, and plans to stay that way to the end of the school year in May.

Pittsburg State University plans to continue holding in-person classes. It has suspended all university-led travel outside Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, including conferences and meetings.

At Washburn University, in-person classes are canceled until March 20. After that, most classes will move online. Students are being encouraged to stay home and not return to campus after spring break until face-to-face classes resume. All events with 100 or more people scheduled to April 4 are being reviewed and possibly canceled.

“I understand there are many person and logistical challenges that happen with measures like this,” Golden wrote. “Please take care of yourself and your friends and colleagues during this time. ... While the coronavirus is very serious, I have no doubt that as a community, we will be fine.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 5:06 PM.