Florida Coastal School of Law said July 22 that all courses will be online when the fall semester begins Aug. 3.
The decision reverses a June 5 announcement that classes and other school activities would be on campus, according to WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Record.
In an email, Dean Peter Goplerud said the primary concern is the health and safety of students, staff, faculty and their families because of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Over the last several weeks we have watched the state of Florida average over 10,000 new cases per day and many of the state’s hospitals are at full capacity. Cases and hospitalizations in Northeast Florida have surged similar to those of the state as a whole. We have reviewed the CDC guidelines, reviewed the plans of other schools, evaluated our campus technology and noted that teachers have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s order for public schools to open on time.
“Based upon a careful assessment of the various factors and public health data, we have decided that the best course of action given the facts is to conduct courses fully online for the Fall 2020 semester. We did not come to this decision easily,” Goplerud said.
He said Florida Coastal shift to online classes in the spring confirmed the ability of the faculty to provide a strong teaching and learning environment.
Read the rest of this story at JaxDailyRecord.com.
