INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Following on the heels of several major cancellations of events the past few days, including the SXSW conferencein Austin and the tech
conference SaaStr, Stanford University, which is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California, announced late Friday that
the school would cancel in-person classes for the final two weeks of the university winter quarter in response to the expanding outbreak of
novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
In a statement posted by the university, Stanford provost Persis Drell announced that the university would
cancel two weeks of classes leading up to the university winter quarter exams, and ''to the extent feasible& migrate classes to online
formats.
In addition, professors are being encouraged by the administration to find ways of delivering functionally equivalent course
material through online formats, and all exams for winter quarter are expected to be delivered remotely
The policy takes effect immediately starting with classes this coming Monday, March 9.
Furthermore, the university is canceling its annual
Admit Weekend, where newly-admitted prospective freshman visit the palm-lined campus and learn more about the school before making a final
decision on where to head for their undergraduate degrees
Tours of the campus have also been canceled.
The university in a separate notetoday acknowledged that two students are in self-isolation
after &possible exposure& to the novel coronavirus
The university emphasized that neither student has affirmatively tested positive for the infection at this time.
The San Francisco Bay Area
has seen increasing numbers of potential exposures to the novel coronavirus
Stanford itself has been on the vanguard of responding to the global pandemic, announcing thedevelopment of its own test earlier this week
