March 10, 2020
Dear students and parents and guardians of students in Yale College,
I write to follow up on President Salovey’s announcement that in response to the continued health threat posed by the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we are moving all classes online and asking Yale College students to stay away from campus and return home. This guidance is effective from March 23 through April 5 at the earliest.
During that time, classes will resume, but will be conducted online only. You will receive guidance in the coming days on how this will work for your particular classes.
Students currently on campus should try to leave by this Sunday, March 15th.
If you are a student living on campus without a suitable place to stay through April 5, please let your residential college head and dean know, and we will continue to support you on campus with dining and health services, even as you will need to participate in classes remotely. It matters greatly to me that if you are in the very difficult position of not having a safe place to go to off campus, you know that we will take care of you.
We know that there will be many questions and concerns about academic continuity, leaving campus, residential college support, events, and other matters. To give you the guidance you need, we are working on FAQs that will be made available to you as soon as tomorrow. I will email you when they are ready.
In the meantime, I remind you that Yale’s COVID-19 website provides important guidance and information, and that it will be updated as new information becomes available. Furthermore, I will continue to send updates that bear particularly on undergraduates.
This is an extraordinary moment, and it calls on all of us to support each other with great care. It is my great hope that we will have cause to remember, at a time well past the current crisis, that Yale College was for all of us a source of great strength and continued inspiration.
With best wishes,
Marvin M. Chun
Dean of Yale College
Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology; Neuroscience; Cognitive Science