TOMPKINS COUNTY, NY (WSKG) Shirley Collado, president of Ithaca College, announced on Tuesday that students will not return to campus for in-person classes this fall. The decision comes as rates of COVID-19 increase in parts of the country.
Earlier this month the college stepped back its initial plans and announced that students in states on the New York travel advisory list could not return to campus this fall.
In her statement about the return to all online learning, Collado said the decision was made because of the changing nature of the pandemic and out of a concern for the “health and safety of our students, their families, our faculty and staff, and our local communities.”
Collado said that the prospect of bringing students back only to have to send them home again because of an outbreak would be too disruptive to their education.
Ithaca College now expects students to return to campus in spring 2021, depending on the state of the pandemic.