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Associate Provost and Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé wrote in an email to the Penn community Monday afternoon that two of the positive coronavirus cases are away from campus and one is currently on campus.
Though Penn said students who need to stay on campus because of travel restrictions or other personal reasons can apply to do so, many are being denied housing without possibility of appeal.
Both Campus Apartments and the Radian, two of the largest off-campus landlords, said they haven't heard from the University about moving their tenants out.
With all clinical rotations canceled until further notice, Penn Nursing students are concerned about how to compensate for the lost hours and whether they will be able to log enough hours to graduate on time.
Most international students must leave Penn, and many living on campus are scrambling to book flights home before travel restrictions are put into place. But for some, leaving campus is not a viable option.
The course, titled “Epidemics, Natural Disasters, and Geopolitics: Managing Global Business and Financial Uncertainty,” will run for six weeks starting March 25.
Many professors expressed concern for possible technological and logistical difficulties and disappointment that students would lose the experience of being in a classroom setting.
President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett announced Thursday evening that students will now be expected to move out of their on-campus residences by March 17 at 8 p.m.
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn's Director of Campus Health Ashlee Halbritter said out of the over 100 cases of potential exposure Penn identified, none of the cases were high risk.
Provost Wendell Pritchett wrote that Penn would provide financial assistance with flight costs and that he would be working to ensure students abroad in Europe receive "as much academic credit as possible" for this semester.
Belongings of students living in the College Houses, Sansom Place, and University-recognized Greek houses will be secured until the University deems it is safe for students to retrieve them.
The email sent by Provost Wendell Pritchett and President Amy Gutmann to the Penn community instructed students who are on campus to move out by March 15 and those who are off campus for spring break not to return.
Penn will extend spring break by one week and move to remote instruction beginning March 23, President Amy Gutmann Provost Wendell Pritchett announced in an email to Penn faculty.
Global travel bans and the uncertain fate of Penn's classes and dormitory availabilities have left international and first-generation, low-income students unsure of where they will live and how they will pay for housing and meals.
A growing number of universities are banning international travel and mandating that classes shift to online platforms to limit the spread of the virus.
A further update on whether Penn is shifting to online classes will come later this week, Provost Wendell Pritchett wrote in an email to the Penn community.
Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein wrote that as of now, classes are expected to meet as scheduled when Penn returns from spring break on Monday, March 16.
This year's Quaker Days events, which were planned for April 6 and April 15, and the Multicultural Scholars Preview program on April 14, have been canceled, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda wrote in a press release.