NC State Moves All Fall Classes Online
Following the lead of North Carolina and Notre Dame, NC State has become the latest ACC school to move all its classes online for the fall semester, effectively creating a modified bubble that could help coach Dave Doeren's football team play its season as scheduled.
The move will become effective on Monday, Aug. 24. It comes in response to recent COVID-19 clusters reported both on and off campus, was announced Thursday afternoon in a letter to undergraduate students from chancellor Randy Woodson.
Click here for a link to the letter, which also announces that while university housing will remain open, students can cancel their contracts and receive a prorated refund.
The move to virtual instruction won't affect members of the football team currently preparing its 2020 season, according to a statement issued by senior associate athletic director Fred Demarest.
"NC State student athletes will continue to attend online classes and may remain in their off-campus housing," the statement said.
"The health and safety of our student-athletes is our unconditional priority. We will continue to hold practices and workouts for our teams under the previously established protocols by our University Athletics Department and local health officials.
"NC State is progressing with the expectation to compete this fall and will be transparent with our student-athletes and programs in the communication of our plans. We will work in conjunction with our campus, the ACC, state and local health officials toward the safest and most responsible course of action."
State is scheduled to begin an 11-game football season on Saturday, Sept. 12 at Virginia Tech. To date, no Wolfpack players have opted out of playing because of COVID-19 concerns.
"I think in-person instruction is a powerful thing," Doeren said in a Zoom conference with local media before the decision to go online only was made. "Can you learn in a virtual setting? Yeah, you can. Maybe it does protect the 530 student-athletes if that’s what it ends up being.
"But I think there’s positives and negatives to all of that. I just hope that everybody that is having the issues is okay. As a campus, I know that Chancellor (Randy) Woodson will do the right thing for us."
Check back frequently for updates to this developing story.
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