UCF announced Wednesday that it would be moving all classes to remote instruction for at least two weeks starting Monday due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019.
This announcement came after the Florida Board of Governors advised state universities to take action and transition to remote instruction, according to a Wednesday news release.
While students are advised not to return to campus for two weeks following spring break, according to a Thursday news release, UCF employees are expected to continue working and student employees should contact their supervisors for further instruction.
“Some student employees will be working if their supervisors permit them to, and if they don’t meet the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] criteria for self-quarantine due to travel restrictions,” UCF spokeswoman Heather Smith said in a phone interview with Knight News.
Smith said a student employee’s ability to work is based on CDC travel restrictions.
The CDC recommends individuals who have traveled to a Level 3 country — including China, South Korea, Iran, and Europe — must self-quarantine, and those who traveled to a Level 2 country may have to limit interactions with others, upon return.
The CDC outlined three symptoms of COVID-19 as being fever, cough and shortness of breath.
Other information about what will be open and closed beginning next week is coming soon, according to the news release.
For students who utilize UCF’s shuttle system, new hours of operation will be in place for the next two weeks.
All routes will be in operation. New hours are 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Smith said.
Shuttles will also remain available to take students to and from the Publix at the University Palms Shopping Center on Tuesdays.
Smith said students will still be able to access shuttles routes in real-time through the UCF Mobile phone app.
Ivette Soto, a UCF parent and pharmacist in Miami, said she wanted to make sure her son — a resident at UCF-affiliated apartment complex Knights Circle — could still rely on the shuttle system to get around during the next couple of weeks as he doesn’t have a car.
“My son does not work on campus, but it’s nice to know he can still go to campus to eat at the dining halls or do as he likes,” Soto said.
Soto said she is not too worried about the COVID-19 outbreak. As a pharmacist, she said she believes most younger people have ridden the virus quite well, and people shouldn’t be too concerned.
“We don’t really know how bad it’s going to get,” she said. “Everything is very vague, and this is very new — the way this viral thing is coming. We’re kind of waiting to see where we are on this spectrum. I think we just have to go through this and struggle until it passes.”
UCF has no confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the university is working with local and state health departments to be prepared, UCF interim President Thad Seymour Jr. said in a Wednesday statement.
This story has been updated with new information, continue to check back for updates.
