As coronavirus figures continue to grow, Michigan State University President Samuel Stanley Jr. says the university must be ready to continue distance learning programs into the fall semester.
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Speaking Monday in an online town hall, Stanley said MSU administrators are struggling to decide how and when to re-open the campus.
The university has been providing online only instruction since March 11.
With no sign that the coronavirus is easing, Stanley says the campus may have to remain physically shutdown when the fall semester begins.
“That has to be something in our repertoire to do…because if that’s really the only safe way we can deliver full instruction, that is what we’d have to do,” Stanley says. “We need to be preparing for the eventuality where we don’t open, we need to be thinking about how we would open as well. Both those things are going on in parallel right now.”
Stanley says MSU has lost between $50 million and $60 million in revenue this semester.
While he did not mention specific actions such as layoffs, Stanley says MSU is “looking at every possibility” in terms of personnel.
