After all public universities in Michigan Wednesday canceled in-person classes in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Thursday community colleges across West Michigan began following suit
A number of community and private colleges in West Michigan are telling students to stay home after Michigan officials say two people in Michigan have tested positive for the coronavirus infection.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state emergency Tuesday, and by Thursday, Muskegon Community College, Grand Rapids Community College, Calvin College, Cornerstone University and Hope College are just a few out of the several that have canceled in-person classes and are moving to online-learning.
Dale Nesbary is the President of Muskegon Community College. He says that while the move is precautionary, the decision was made by the school to not wait until it was too late.
"We wanted to be proactive and not reactive,” Nesbary said. If we wait until there is a case on our campus, there is probably many more that have gone undetected. So we wanted to be proactive and we’re putting our students, faculty, staff and greater community as our highest priority.”
In-person classes are canceled currently through April 3rd, however, Nesbary said that is just a tentative plan and may be longer depending on how the coronavirus pandemic plays out in Michigan over the next two weeks.
