San Jose State suspended all in-person classes on Monday from today to Friday because of concerns surrounding the new coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, according to a campuswide email.

“This decision is meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community, reduce the potential of people being infected, and protect those who are most vulnerable to severe illness,” SJSU President Mary Papazian stated in the email.

All classes will move to distributed or fully online instruction March 16-27, Papazian said. 

Administration will then determine whether  or not to resume in-person classes after spring break.

SJSU does not have a confirmed case of COVID-19 as of Monday, Papazian said in a separate email sent Sunday.

City Council member Raul Peralez told the Spartan Daily that San Jose’s Pandemic Response team is in Stage 4 of their alert level. Stage 4 indicates a high risk to the local population and an imminent outbreak, according to the team. 

Peralez said his district in Downtown San Jose, which includes SJSU, is a higher risk area for transmission.

“It’s a concern anywhere in a dense area, right, where you can’t avoid it here in downtown and can’t avoid being around people,” Peralez said. “So it’s tough if, you know, it starts to spread more rapidly, [it’s] certainly gonna happen in an area that’s
more dense.”

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department confirmed 43 cases of COVID-19 and one death as of Monday.

The fatality was an adult woman in her 60s. She was the third case of COVID-19 reported by the County Public Health Department on Feb. 28 and was hospitalized for several weeks after testing positive, according to the department website.

Business management junior Dalton Dequit said the university should have canceled classes sooner and was also worried about residents on campus.

“I think that the residential housing community should address it,” Dequit said. “They should do something.”

Kenneth Mashinchi, senior director of media relations, said that the Strategic Communications and Marketing Department, had no information at the time of publication about on-campus residency. He said the campus, including the dorms, will remain open until further notice.

Biology freshman Mary Keithley said she fears the possibility of an outbreak in the dorms. 

“[The dorms remaining open is] pretty bad because last semester, like, my entire building got super sick,” Keithley said. “In college, it gets really fast
and contagious.”

The virus is thought to spread from person to person either through direct contact or through coughing and sneezing, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Papazian’s email also stated that the campus will remain “open for normal business.”

For the rest of this week, Academic Affairs personnel will provide training and support for faculty members and professors to  transition their in-person classes to “remote teaching,” according to the email.

“This provides maximum flexibility to each instructor within the confines of this very challenging public health care environment,” Papazian stated.

“Remote teaching” includes online formats such as Canvas, live lectures via Zoom, which is a video conferencing service, and distributed material that is returned to the instructor.

“I guess that’s for the best,” geology lecturer Bradley Buerer said. “I know there’s a lot of anxiety among students about what’s going on and how things are going.” 

He added that while he was expecting the university to eventually cancel classes, it does change some of the in-class assignments he had planned.

For now, faculty members must obtain permission to continue an in-person format such as smaller lab courses, field schools and art studios.

“So this is also an opportunity, I guess, for us to just really take a look at what’s the other teaching tools we have already available,” said Binh Danh, an art and art history professor.

Danh said that even though his color photography and alternative photography classes won’t get the same in-person critiques, the classes will focus on digital photography. 

“In each case of approval, the dean may ask for clarification about how the course design can be modified to reduce transmission risk,” Papazian stated
in the email.

Remaining spring semester meetings, gatherings and events will be individually evaluated for possible cancellation, according to a Sunday email from Papazian. Santa Clara County officials said they are now banning all large gatherings of 1,000 people or more for three weeks starting Wednesday.

SJSU Athletics events are scheduled to continue as planned, Joseph Waltasti, assistant athletics director for media relations, stated in an email to
the Spartan Daily. 

“At this time, the university remains open and athletics events will continue as previously scheduled,” Waltasti stated.

According Papazian’s Sunday email, SJSU has suspended all international and “non-essential” domestic travel, including summer and fall 2020 trips, tied to the university and its auxiliary organizations. 

This includes all study abroad trips and conference travel approved prior to Sunday. 

Students are recommended to get more information regarding reauthorization and reimbursement through their SJSU email or other public health websites.

Contributing reporting by Mauricio La Plante, Gia Pham and Austin Turner