Cleveland State University announced a transition to remote-only learning on Wednesday, March 11. The university joined the other 14 public universities in Ohio in announcing temporary cancellations of in-person courses due to the outbreak of COVID-19, a disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Ohio State University announced cancellations Monday, March 9 after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the first three cases of the virus in Cuyahoga County. The other 12 public schools, including Kent State University, Wright State University and Miami University, all followed with closure announcements March 10.

Although it was the last of Ohio’s public universities to announce its closure – a fact which drew the ire of some students on social media – Cleveland State President Harlan Sands explained the decision came later due to unique challenges the university faces in transitioning to remote learning.

“Given that all our students are on Spring Break this week and not on campus, we are taking a very deliberate and informed approach to how we would do this since, unlike some other locations, many of our students do not have personal computers and some lack remote access to the internet,” Sands wrote in a newsletter to the university community early March 11.

Later that day with the announcement to switch to remote courses until April 13, the administration included plans to release a survey for students to determine technology-related access. The university was one of the first in the state to acknowledge the challenges some students would face in accessing the resources needed for online classes.

Cleveland State is not alone in facing resource challenges for students. COVID-19 has sparked closures of educational institutions from K-12 to the collegiate level across the country. Students are experiencing limited access to technology, sudden lost jobs following government-mandated shutdowns of non-essential businesses, food insecurity and displacement from their student housing on a national level.

Sands hosted a virtual town hall meeting through Facebook Live that answered some of the questions students and parents have been asking. The university has obtained more laptops and WiFi hotspots for students to use during this time, Sands said during that meeting. He also insisted students and non-essential faculty remain away from campus. 

While the federal and state governments argue out relief bills and release new executive orders, universities like Cleveland State are on almost complete in-person shutdowns. Offices and resources working to assist with student relief efforts are available remotely. Information for those facing evictions, disconnected utilities and food insecurity can be found on the university’s new Keep Learning webpage.

Cleveland State administration updated the original coronavirus response plans to operate remotely through the remainder of the spring semester. On-campus student housing officially closed, and move-out procedures ended Sunday, March 22. Refund rates are still in a discussion period.

Universities across the country are making similar decisions to help limit in-person interactions and the possible spread of the virus.

For students who live farther away from their universities, this has created some difficulties.

“It was difficult because I had to deal with, when the dorms did close, driving back up to Cleveland to get everything and then driving back in one day,” said Leah Beckwith, a sophomore at Cleveland State whose family resides in upstate New York.

Beckwith lives in Euclid Commons during the academic year, and she was not on campus during spring break.

“I had to leave all my friends that are four hours away from me and basically had to just go back to living with my parents and not living with my friends, which sucks,” she said.

Students across the country who attend universities away from their homes are in similar situations to Beckwith. The University of Pennsylvania gave graduate students days to move out of their grad student housing, and student housing move-out dates nationally ranged from less than a week to two weeks from the notice of initially switching to remote courses.

Wherever out-of-state residential students leaving the dorms were headed, they will likely be facing the same shelter-in-place rules as in-state students. New York, California, Illinois and approximately half the country all have their own stay-at-home rules enacted. Some states have no predicted end date, while others, like Ohio, are pending an end in early April.

All 50 states have reported cases to the CDC, with numbers climbing daily. As of April 14, the national total for confirmed cases reached 584,073 according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center (JHCRC). The death rate for those infected is approximately 4.01 percent at 23,709. The recovery rate is higher at 7.6 percent with 44,319 reported so far.

On a more local level, the Ohio Department of Health has reported confirmed cases in more than half of the state’s counties. The death rate for Ohio is currently 3.9 percent, with a hospitalization rate of 29.2 percent, according to the department’s most recently reported data.

Cuyahoga County makes up 1,197 of the state’s 6,975 confirmed cases and 24 of the 274 deaths reported so far.