Tufts Last Day for Grades to Be Uploaded

The Daily is following the developments associated with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and its effect on the Tufts customs. As the community adapts to these ongoing developments, the Daily volition go on to update this article with more information as it is available.

The Daily published Letters from the Editors on March eleven encouraging the customs to remain engaged despite the obstacles presented past the coronavirus. Read them here and here .

Caleb Symons, Jess Blough, Elie Levine, Alexander Thompson, Robert Kaplan, Ryan Shaffer, Austin Clementi, Alex Viveros and Jake Freudberg contributed reporting to this commodity.

May fourteen

Tufts plans to begin fall semester on time, phase reopening of clinics, enquiry

Academy President Anthony Monaco today announced the university is beginning the process of resuming its clinical and research activities. A dministrators are unsure, notwithstanding, how instruction will be delivered when the fall semester begins, which is expected to happen equally scheduled.

Both the Cummings Schoolhouse of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine have remained open for emergencies , and at present are planning to reopen past the cease of May or early June. The schools will employ new prophylactic protocols in accordance with the recommendations of public health experts, according to Monaco's e-mail sent today to the Tufts community.

Inquiry has continued to a limited extent , only the university is now preparing to expand that work by slowly reopening facilities while keeping in line with social distancing measures and enacting expanded sanitation procedures.

Monaco wrote that the university expects to begin fall courses on time and hopes to do so on campus , though there has been no official determination made about whether classes volition be conducted in person, virtually or both.

Administrators are preparing for multiple methods of instruction to cop e with the dubiety of the pandemic, which includes a "hybrid model" that involves virtual, in-person and some "dual format" instruction, according to Monaco's email .

Tufts is taking into account students' desire to take a traditional on-campus college experience while because how to continue providing the loftier-quality pedagogy students wait and maintaining safety amid the pandemi c, co-ordinate to Monaco's email.

Monaco too c ommended staff members for their power to conform over the past calendar month s, and said they would also render to campus in a phased manner. He cited some of the ways staff operations will change.

"When staff do return to campus, there volition be notable changes, including screening procedures, guidelines on social distancing and the employ of masks, and restrictions on in-person meetings," Monaco said.

Monaco promised the formation of a commission that would seek to " strengthen campus life" and promote customs despite the restrictions required due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"While health and safety are of utmost importance, we also desire to ensure that the sense of community that is a hallmark of the Tufts experience will continue to thrive," Monaco said.

April xiv

Tufts to implement hiring freeze, wage and salary freeze, suspend all capital projects

The academy will suspend hiring, wage and salary increases and capital project spending to mitigate an estimated $15 million in unexpected costs and lost revenue resulting from this semester'southward coronavirus pandemic.

Administrators estimate that costs associated with the pandemic could ascent to over $50 million next fiscal twelvemonth .

In an email signed by University President Anthony Monaco, Provost and Senior Vice President Nadine Aubry and Executive Vice President Mike Howard, the administration today notified all Tufts faculty and staff that the university has implemented "an firsthand moratorium" on hiring, excluding externally funded positions.

Merit cycle salary and wage increases and those related to market adjustments volition be suspended . Increases related to promotions and provided by contracts will not be affected.

Planned uppercase projects will be suspended indefinitely , though ongoing construction "in advanced stages" will continue every bit soon as authorities allow . All "discretionary" spending will also halt , including on not-essential facilities.

The administrators emphasized in their email the importance of protecting Tufts' " long-term wellness" and maintaining loftier educational standards while caring for kinesthesia and staff .

" At this time, nosotros cannot make promises or predictions about what decisions nosotros will face moving forward," they wrote. " But we can pledge to you lot that when in that location are challenging decisions to be fabricated, nosotros will make them in as open up and equitable a manner as possible. "

Apr ten

Tufts to house COVID-xix patients, wellness care personnel in residence halls

Caleb Symons / The Tufts Daily

Tufts announced on Mon that its residence halls would be bachelor to showtime responders, medical personnel and patients from local communities, as wellness care facilities ready for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

University President Anthony Monaco revealed that Tufts plans to accommodate patients from Boston-area hospitals in a March 18 op-ed in The Boston Globe . University officials await to brainstorm providing housing imminently, according to Tufts' website .

Tufts will make several residences on its Medford/Somerville campus bachelor to equally many as 1,600 people who cannot return home because they are existence tested for, or already tested positive for COVID-19, or because they live with vulnerable family unit members:

• Hillside Apartments: Cambridge Health Alliance medical personnel.
• Miller Hall: Cambridge Wellness Alliance patients who are COVID-xix positive just do not require disquisitional care.
• Community Housing (CoHo): First responders from the City of Somerville.
• Bush Hall: Tufts employees.

The university has too offered to accommodate staff members from Tufts Medical Center and first responders from the City of Medford. Tufts is prepared to host COVID-19 testing sites in its parking lots across campus merely has not been asked to exercise then yet , according to Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins.

Tufts students who are unable to return home due to travel restrictions or other circumstances are currently living in Harleston Hall . Students requiring isolation or quarantine volition be housed in Latin Way Apartments or Sophia Gordon Hall.

In an email sent to the Tufts community on Monday, Monaco reaffirmed the academy's delivery to supporting local populations as they confront the spread of COVID-19.

"I feel strongly that Tufts and other universities, particularly enquiry universities, accept an abundance of resource to offer our customs and healthcare partners in their fight confronting this unprecedented and speedily irresolute challenge," he wrote. "We accept the power to assist with our space, facilities, infrastructure, and partnerships. Nosotros need to match our capacities to providers' needs in order to aid save the pressure on the healthcare organization."

April 7

Prohibition on university-related travel extended

Tufts extended its ban on university-related travel for faculty, staff and students, which Executive Vice President Mike Howard announced in an e-mail to the Tufts community on Friday.

F aculty members and staff are prohibited from domestic and international travel that is either sponsored or funded by or otherwise connected to Tufts until June 30, according to Howard . Students are prohibited from such travel until Baronial 20.

Howard explained in his e-mail that the academy volition examine its travel restrictions at the beginning of each month.

" The state of affairs will be reassessed at periodic intervals (May 1, June ane, July 1, August 1), based on international, national, state, and local guidance, to determine whether a revision or extension of the restrictions for students and for kinesthesia and staff may be warranted," he wrote.

The new travel guidance updates Tufts' ban on all university-related travel , which University President Anthony Monaco announced in a March 10 emai l to the Tufts community. Monaco also discouraged personal travel, except for the purposes of returning habitation.

March 26

Tufts promises continued work-report compensation, calculation to refund commitments

Educatee Financial Services unveiled new changes to work-study funding in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, in an update emailed to students today and posted on the university's coronavirus website .

Since the academy required most students to move out of on-campus housing by March xvi, it has been developing plans to provide for educatee employees' financial demand south, according to the email. Even so, the email recognized that these changes will upshot in fewer earnings from on-campus employment this semester than many students anticipated.

• Undergraduates and graduates who receive federal piece of work-study funding will go along to be paid for their regular hours through the last twenty-four hour period of final exams, May 8, regardless of whether they volition go on working remotely — where possibl e —  for their on-campus employer.
• Undergraduates without piece of work-study funding will exist paid for their regular hours
• through Apr 4. After April 4, undergraduates without work-report will simply be paid for hours they piece of work remotely.
• Graduate students without work-study will simply exist paid for hours they are able to work remotely through May eight.
• S tudents will be paid for an averaged number of hours they usually piece of work, either a ccording to a set schedule , or bas ed on past weeks throughout this semester .

The update brash that student employees should keep to submit hours when they work . Educatee employees are also responsible for contacting their supervisors to talk over how to accommodate to working remotely , and pupil supervisors should continue to update the payroll system for their employees.

The email as well stressed that the termination of any on-campus student chore equally a result of the university's response to the coronavirus will non affect a educatee'due south power to reapply for any position when campus reopens .

Housing and meal plan fees volition exist prorated , effective March 16. The university will a lso refund JumboCash and RhinoBucks balances upon request , merely students had to request refunds by Wed, March 25 , according to an electronic mail Tufts Dining sent out on Monday.

The prorated refunds are adjusted for the amount of financial aid each student receives, relative to students' out-of-pocket costs. The prorated reimbursements will be issued as credit to their accounts, which can exist held for a future semester or r efunded through Student Data Systems.

Students living in on-campus housing volition automatically receive prorated credit for whatever housing and repast program fees . Those living off campus with meal plans had to reques t credit for meal plans b y Thursday at apex , according to Tufts' coronavirus website.

Tufts Offset ceremony to be conducted near

Tufts will hold its outset-e'er virtual Commencement ceremony on May 17, University President Anthony Monaco appear in an email to the Tufts customs on Th.

Monaco attributed the conclusion to the COVID-19 pandemic , which has s huttered events effectually the worl d. The Outset ceremony is scheduled to take place simply after a ii-calendar month menstruum during which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised against gatherings of 50 or more people.

"We are now working to blueprint a unique and participatory virtual experience that will capture the spirit, positivity and fun of a traditional first ceremony for graduates, their families, alumni, and the entire Tufts customs," Monaco wrote. "We promise you will join us in thinking nigh how to create an impactful and memorable event."

The announcement provoked considerable opposition amid graduating studen ts.

On Thursday afternoon, the Tufts Community Marriage (TCU) Senate members of the Course of 2020 demanded that the university organize an on-campus graduation ceremony afterward the adventure of the coronavirus subsides. The TCU Senate members argued that a physical ceremony would be specially meaningful for offset-generation students and called on Tufts to help low-income and international students attend an on-campus ceremony.

A petition u rging Tufts to reschedule the Start anniversary rather than host it near had more than than 2,600 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

Many Boston-area schools, including Harvard University , t he Massachusetts Institute of Engineering science (MIT ) and Northeastern University , have decided to comport virtual first ceremonies . Harvard and MIT also program to hold on-campus ceremonies at a later date, while students at Northeastern have circulated a petition request administrators to do the aforementioned.

March 23

Tufts adopts optional, for-credit Pass/Fail grading system

Tufts faculty in the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering (AS&E) voted today to allow several exceptions to their bookish policies for the remainder of the spring semester, providing about undergraduates more than bookish flexibility as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts traditional learning environments beyond the earth.

• The Laissez passer/Fail grading selection is temporarily expanded with a new grade, called "Exceptional Pass" (EP) . EP encompasses letter grades from D- to A+ , satisfies all degree and distribution requirements and does non affect students' grade point averages . EP volition exist awarded instead of whatsoever "Pass" course for the balance of the spring semeste r.
• The deadlines to select the Pass/Fail grading option and withdraw from a class were both extended from April 1 to April 27 , the final day of classe s.
• Tufts courses completed online over the spring and summer terms volition not be counted toward a pupil's limit on coursework completed onlin e. Similarly, online courses completed at other institutions, including external study away programs, may now be considered for transfer of credit.
• Courses completed at other institutions that adopted a mandatory laissez passer/fail grading system, in which students may only receive a "pass" or "fail" for courses taken, may be considered by the deans and Registrar for transfer of credit.
• For form registration for autumn 2o20: No educatee volition have an advising agree placed on them b efore their registration time and registration will remain open until late August, instead of closing in mid-April and reopening in June .

T he policy changes, announced by the deans of the undergraduate schools along with the corresponding deans of bookish advising and undergraduate studies, were explained in an email to AS&Eastward students, faculty and staff on Monday evening after the kinesthesia vote.

These changes do not apply to studio coursework taken by Available of Fine Arts and Combined Degree students, whose grade is awarded on a "Credit" or "No Credit" syste thousand. A ccording to the deans' email, students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts volition be informed soon about changes to their review board process.

Numerous other colleges and universities have already adopted similar grading policies to address the disruptions to instruction, grading and academic performance caused past the departure of virtually students from their campuses and its implications. Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have adopted optional pass/fail policies, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Smith College have adopted versions of a mandatory laissez passer/fail grading system.

The sweeping changes to bookish policy were announced less than 48 hours before students reconvene online for the balance of the spring semester. Classes, which were suspended in-person by the assistants since March 13 in order to ho-hum the rate of transmission of COVID-xix, will still continue to their previously scheduled final 24-hour interval on April 27, as will terminal exams from May ane to May viii.

March 22

Students in quarantine to be released in coming days

Students who may have been exposed to a Tufts student who tested positive for COVID-nineteen will terminate their quarantines in the coming days, provided they have not displayed symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

In an electronic mail from the Function of the Dean of Student Affairs (DOSA) on March 20, the quarantined students were instructed to practice social distancing after their release. Students quarantined on campus were besides told to look boosted information from the university about their housing situation.

The students went into self-quarantine afterward being informed past Tufts terminal week that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus by a student who tested positive for COVID-xix. That student attended a party at Arts Haus on March 7 with several dozen individuals and also sat in two classes on March 9 earlier developing a fever the following twenty-four hour period.

In an e mail from DOSA several days later on , students who attended the party or the 2 classes were instructed to stay at domicile and to limit their contact with other people for fourteen days. The 2-week span is the virus' maximum incubation menstruation , co-ordinate to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That period will expire today for students who may accept been exposed to the virus at the March 7 political party and on Tuesday for students who attended March 9 classes with the infected student.

March xviii

Monaco proposes housing overflow infirmary patients in residence halls

Tufts is prepared to arrange patients from Boston-expanse hospitals and health centers in its residence halls, if necessary, Academy President Anthony Monaco wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed today.

In his op-ed, Monaco identified five measures that colleges can take to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on local health intendance systems .

1. Identify residential units th at tin be used for patients in quarantine and set dining services to support t hese patients.
2. Offer residential units to patients requiring non-essential medical reh abilitation services in order to free up inpatient hospital beds ; provide hospitals with personal protective equipment, laboratory supplies and cleaning supplies.
3. Establish triage centers for COVID-19 testing in university-owned parking lots and set up to employ open space and gymnasiums as field hospitals.
4. Engage trained military personnel, r etired executives and regime leaders in the university community for operations and communications communication ; e stablish an incident command structure to oversee management and communications.
5. Eastward ngage alumni, kinesthesia and students who tin can provide online assistance and financial support, if necessary.

Tufts informed the mayors of Somerville and Medford , as well every bit local wellness care leaders, that it is prepared to have these steps, co-ordinate to Monaco .

The university has already offered to business firm Tufts Medical Center patients requiring non-essential medical rehabilitation services in its residence halls.

March 17

Tufts undergraduates stranded abroad due to travel restrictions

At least five Tufts students remain in their study abroad locations subsequently their host countries suspended international flights and tightened their borders.

Iii of the students were studying in Morocco and are currently in hotels — two in Rabat, i in Casablanca — as bundled past their study away programs. Two other students were studying in Peru and remain with their host families.

Four of the students, all of whom are juniors, were studying through Schoolhouse for International Training (SIT) programs. Tufts is working with the students and SIT to repatriate them, according to Senior Director of Study Abroad and Global Education Mala Ghosh.

Equally of Tuesday evening, the three students stranded in Kingdom of morocco had tentatively booked flights to exit the country subsequently this calendar week.

This post was updated on March 17 to reflect new information.

March 16

Students told to register for meal times, dining operations moved to Dewick-MacPhie

Tufts Dining Services volition provide takeout meals and require students to register for specific meal times in an effort to comply with Massachusetts' social distancing recommendations , according to emails sent to members of the Tufts customs by Director of Dining and Business organization Services Patti Klos on Monday .

Meal times will be available on a showtime-come, starting time-served basis and will be capped at 25 students per 15-minute slot , co-ordinate to Klos . Students tin can annals for specific repast times through the Office for Campus Life'due south Tufts Tickets online system.

Students in self-quarantine or isolation will be able to order a continental breakfast from Tufts Dining through an online form . Breakfast will be delivered to those students with the previous night'south dinner .

Meals volition be served takeout-way , in accordance with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's directive on Sunday banning on-premise consumption , which volition get into effect tomorrow .

Tufts Dining currently uses containers that are either compostable or disposable and volition go along to source sustainable materials "wherever possible," Klos wrote in an email to the Daily.

Klos likewise announced in an electronic mail that Tufts Dining volition offer meal services at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Middle for the rest of the semester . Brunch will be served from ten a.1000.–3 p.thousand., and dinner will be served from 4–8 p.grand .

The university previously told students that Carmichael Dining Centre would host Tufts' dining operations until May eight while other dining locations, including Dewick , would exist closed, effective March 14 . Instead, Carmichael Dining Center airtight on March 15 .

" The University decided to go along operations at Dewick rather than Carmichael to all-time upshot social distancing, and provide services to students who may exist unable to come up to the dining centers for a period of fourth dimension," Klos told the Daily. "Dewick is also in closer proximity to where Tufts expects many students may be living later on Spring Pause."

Klos added that the switch to Dewick is not connected to Tufts' ongoing negotiations with Dining Services employees over their hours and compensation .

"The University is actively negotiating with the dining union nigh the impact these operational changes may have on employees' hours and compensation, and remains committed to finding ways to ease this disruption wherever possible," she wrote.
Commons Marketplace , in the Mayer Campus Center, will remain open with express weekday hours, every bit Tufts previously announced. Students will be able to use i repast swipe each solar day at this location .

March 15

Exchange students depart as Tufts suspends Global Education program

Substitution students in the Global Didactics program studying at Tufts learned on Saturday that they must depart campus and return to their home country by March 20, or risk violating the terms of their J-1 visa.

As office of Tufts' response to the coronavirus pandemic, commutation students will be allowed to go on their Leap 2022 classes online but must go out their residence hall past March 16.

"[We] take adamant, given worsening weather arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, that information technology is in the interest of both the students themselves and Tufts to accommodate for their return to their domicile countries and dwelling house universities," Tufts Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

The determination by Tufts to suspend its Global Didactics program seems to contradict President Monaco'due south initial commitment that international students' visa status would not exist affected past the movement to online classes.

Other university affiliates with J-1 visas, including postdoctoral researchers and visiting professors, volition non be afflicted past Tufts' break of the Global Education program.

Dining workers, Tufts to negotiate compensation for rest of semester

Tufts Dining worker s await news from the academy about how the campus closure will affect their employment, co-ordinate to union officials.

Several UNITE Hither Local 26 shop stewards, who correspond the dining workers, met with academy officials, including Director of Dining and Concern Services Patti Klos, and a number of summit managers in Dowling Hall on Th afternoon.

The majority of Tufts Dining facilities airtight on Saturday for the rest of the semester.

• Carmichael Dining Middle and Eatables Marketplace, however, will remain open up with limited hours until May eight .T he university'due south central kitchen will also remain open, according to two union shop stewards.

Representatives from Local 26 will run into with university officials on Tuesday to piece of work out an agreement, which may include worker proposals stipulating that Tufts pay all the Dining Services workers in total through April xxx, bring workers back to campus to conduct a deep clean of dining facilities for a week after spring recess as well every bit considerations regarding insurance coverage for healthcare costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic and sick days.

Patrick Collins, Tufts' executive managing director of media relations , confirmed that the university is in negotiations with Dining Services managers and representatives from Local 26.

"The University is actively reviewing its business organisation continuity plans and will work with the Union and dining employees to prioritize the health and safe of all customs members," Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

Tufts Labor Coalition posted a statement online on Th morning time in support of the dining workers. The student grouping also demanded that the university pay workers through the cease of the semester and ensure they have access to COVID-19 testing and unlimited ill days. Equally of Lord's day afternoon, the mail had garnered more 700 signatures.

March 13

Arts Haus residents quarantined afterward student with COVID-19 attends party in business firm

Arts Haus residents are nether quarantine every bit of today, according to its house manager, after the student who tested positive for COVID-19 attended a mixer involving several clubs in the firm on Saturday evening. Around 80 students were in attendance.

Last night, Tufts notified the sick pupil's peers who attended classes with them on Monday that they may take been at risk of contracting the virus.

Tufts sent a similar alert to students who attended the mixer at Arts Haus this morning time. At this fourth dimension, it is unclear how Tufts found the names of those who attended the party. In addition, leaders from the clubs encouraged students who attended the party to contact Student Affairs last night.

An email from the Student Affairs Office asked students enrolled in the classes to isolate themselves. Several students enrolled in the sick student's Tuesday classes were too notified, merely Tufts later issued a correction, saying the sick student did not attend their Tuesday classes.

At least one Arts Haus resident has already left campus for home.

Tufts and the educatee organization Tufts Mutual Aid are providing food and supplies to those left in Arts Haus, also as to those who were asked to isolate themselves after coming into contact with the sick educatee.

Libraries close to Tufts customs, general public

Tisch Library at the School of Arts and Sciences airtight at noon today, co-ordinate to an email sent to students at the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Applied science. The Lilly Music Library remains open until 3:00 p.grand. today, as clarified in a follow-up to the initial electronic mail. The closure comes amid a serial of announcements from the administration regarding university operations in response to COVID-xix.

Tisch Library, alongside Lilly Music Library, will exist airtight to the general public and the Tufts community for an undetermined period. Only library staff tin can enter the building to proceed business operations and help with academic research via virtual chat.

The library at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts volition remain open over the weekend, closing on Monday to the general public and the Tufts customs.

March 12

NCAA cancels remaining postseason events

The NCAA announced on Thursday afternoon that all winter sports championships have been canceled. Previously, the NCAA had indicated that these events would proceed without spectators.

Tufts had 6 wintertime teams currently scheduled for NCAA postseason competition: women's basketball, men's basketball game, women's rail and field, men'south track and field, women'due south swim and dive and men'southward swim and dive.

Currently, the only Tufts pupil-athletes that accept traveled to postseason events are members of the track and field teams, which traveled to North Carolina. The NCAA and Tufts Athletics Department are currently working with Shorts Travel Management to book educatee-athletes and coaches on flights dorsum to Boston then that student-athletes tin collect their belongings and move off campus, according to Director of Athletics Communications Paul Sweeney.

"This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our power to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any fourth dimension during this academic year given ongoing decisions past other entities," the NCAA argument said.

Tufts pupil tests positive for COVID-nineteen

Executive Vice President Mike Howard appear in an email to the Tufts community Thursday evening that a Tufts educatee has tested positive for COVID-1 ix, becoming the kickoff university chapter with a presumptive positive case.

The student had been placed in quarantine past the university on Tuesday after coming down with a fever that morning . The pupil had traveled to the United kingdom over the weekend, where they attended a high school reunion with alumni from several European countries , the pupil told the Daily.

The student attended an on-campus party with several dozen individuals, besides as two classes on Mon , after returning to Tufts.

Howard announced in the electronic mail that members of the Tufts community who may have had contact with the educatee will be contacted by the Medford Board of Health and will be given information on self-quarantine practices.

Four Tufts students who lived in an off-campus apartment with the quarantined pupil take not withal been tested for the virus but accept been in self-isolation since Wednesday morning. Those students attended their classes on Monday and Tuesday and attended numerous university events.

• The student is one of xiii new presumptive positive cases appear by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Th , bringing the full number of cases in Massachusetts to 108 .

Tufts study abroad programs in continental Europe suspended, students asked to return home

Tufts suspended on Thursday its report abroad programs in Madrid, Paris and Tübingen, Germany in an effort to protect the safety of its students and foreclose the spread of COVID-nineteen, co-ordinate to Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins.

Collins explained that students were asked to return to the U.s.a. or to their habitation state immediately and that Tufts will reimburse students for the cost of their travel.

"Our priority at this time is organizing the departures of our students," Collins told the Daily in an email. "We will be in subsequent contact with them to provide updates on academic continuation and fiscal adjustments."

Students returning from these study away programs will exist required to cocky-isolate for at least 14 days upon their render to the United States or their domicile country in order to ensure they exercise not take the coronavirus. Students have as well been asked not to return to Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus.

Tufts' decision to suspend its report away programs in continental Europe followed President Donald Trump's announcement Wednesday night of new restrictions on travelers from Europe. Citizens from countries in the European Marriage's Schengen Area — which does not include the Uk — will be prohibited from entering the United States for xxx days .

Students on Tufts' programs in London and at Oxford University have non even so been told to leave.

Tufts Mutual Aid mobilizes resource to help students during motility-out

A grassroots try by the Tufts customs to back up students who are scrambling to find storage and housing launched Tuesday evening and has grown significantly in recent days.

Inferior Marley Hillman organized Tufts Common Assist post-obit the announcement on Tuesday past Academy President Anthony Monaco that classes volition be suspended and students will exist asked to leave residence halls for the rest of the semester.

Tufts Mutual Assistance has since garnered over 1,000 likes on its Facebook page , where people can submit via a Google form their storage and housing availability. C ommunity members can also provide budgetary aid to students in need.

Students soliciting aid can view and request resource on a centralized spreadsheet . Every bit of Thursday afternoon, the spreadsheet had over 600 entries.

• More than than $5,000 had been distributed directly to students in need by Wednesday evening , according to Hillman .
  • Tufts Mutual Assistance has since begun encouraging people to donate to the FIRST Center's Unexpected Hardship Fund for Student Needs, which has raised over $20,o00.
• Similar grassroots efforts take been taken at other schools sending students habitation , including Harvard Academy and Middlebury Higher .

Three presumptive coronavirus cases announced in Medford, Somerville

The offset presumptive positive case of COVID-19 in Medford was appear Tuesday, while Somerville learned of two residents with presumptive positive cases on Wed.

Both cities have been preparing to handle cases of the novel coronavirus and their impact on local health infrastructure, schools and municipal services.

In Somerville , i of the presumptive positives was the spouse of a West Somerville Neighborhood School instructor , as well equally the parent of a educatee at the same school, which is located on Powderhouse Boulevard — a short walk from Tufts' campus . All three members of the family are being quarantined, and the schoolhouse was closed Thursday after receiving deep cleaning Wed evening.

Medford and Somerville received notice of the presumptive positive tests from the Massachusetts DPH . The preliminary tests must nevertheless be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for verification.

• Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtaton e appear on Midweek that all events sponsored by the city with over 50 attendees will exist postponed until afterward April 30, among other "social distancing measures."

March 11

Tufts pupil quarantined while being tested for coronavirus

Tufts Executive Vice President Mike Howard appear in an email to the Tufts community on Wednesday afternoon that a pupil at the university is beingness tested for COVID-19, on communication from the Massachusetts DPH.

The pupil, who is now in quarantine , recently returned from travelling abroad, according to a source close to the quarantined student. Several students accept been asked to self-isolate later having potentially been in shut contact with the quarantined student.

Howard explained that the educatee has not yet been diagnosed with coronavirus and that Tufts will inform the university community if whatsoever of its affiliates receives a positive diagnosis.

Residents must demonstrate travel restrictions or extenuating personal circumstances to remain in dorms

Students living on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus and at the Schoolhouse of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) must leave their residence hall by iii p.g. on Monday, March 16, according to an email on Wednesday from the deans of several Tufts undergraduate and graduate schools.

The email offered details regarding students' ability to petition Tufts for permission to stay in their residence hall past March xvi. Students were required to demonstrate that they are unable to render to their permanent residences either due to travel restrictions or "extenuating financial or personal circumstances" by v p.m. on Thursday, March 12. Additionally, students from countries designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a Level three travel alert will have the opportunity to stay on campus .

• In their email, the deans also appear that nearly Tufts Dining locations on the university's Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses will close for the sem ester. The Commons Marketplace and Carmichael Dining Middle will remain open to students.

March 10

Tufts suspends in-person classes, closes residence halls for rest of semester

University President Anthony Monaco announced in an email to the Tufts community Tuesday evening that classes will be conducted online for the remainder of the semester in order to prevent an outbreak of the novel coronavirus , COVID-nineteen, on Tufts' campuses.

In add-on, Tufts will require students living on campus to exit their residence hall by Monday, March 16. Students who cannot return to their permanent residence due to travel restrictions or other obstacles will be allowed to remain, as long every bit they receive permission from the academy.

Undergraduate spring interruption, previously scheduled for March fourteen–23 , volition now begin on March 13 in order to give students more fourth dimension to pack their holding. Students volition resume classes, conducted remotely, on March 25.

• Monaco also announced that the move to remote learning will not touch international students' visa status. The U. South. Section of Homeland Security told universities it would non enforce its policy preventing international students from taking more than than one course online , according to the Stanford Daily .
• Tufts has suspended all university-supported domestic and international travel for students, faculty and staff. Information technology also "strongly discourages" all non-essential travel by members of the Tufts community.
• No conclusion has been made about the status of events after Apr 30, which i nclude Senior Week and Commencement.

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Source: https://tuftsdaily.com/coronavirus/2020/03/12/live-updates-tufts-community-responds-coronavirus/

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