MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Whether or not West Virginia University can avoid the same fate of institutions such as University of North Carolina, Notre Dame and others by keeping a limited number of students on campus could boil down to decisions of students.
President Gordon Gee remains optimistic students will make responsible choices even after reported off-campus parties last weekend in Morgantown.
“We got a number of calls from students who wanted us to take action in that regard,” Gee stated, referencing the weekend parties during an interview on Metronews’ “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval.
Meetings began Wednesday between university officials and some of the students who have been identified as taking part in the weekend parties in Morgantown.
.@gordongee, @WestVirginiaU President, joins @HoppyKercheval to discuss the latest on protocol and punishments for students participating in sanctioned events, including a party at one of the fraternities that disassociated from the university. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/tme1isHWfH
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 19, 2020
WVU’s Student Code of Conduct allows the university to take action for actions that take place off-campus. There were several images on social media of weekend parties that appeared to ignore social distancing, crowd limitation orders and mask-wearing mandates.
“We’re trying to get people to act according to the rules that we have outlined and if they don’t and we give them appropriate warning, we may have to expel them or send them home and I hate to do that,” Gee continued.
Other institutions have already scrapped in-person classes after increases in COVID-19 cases, mainly because of off-campus activities.
The University of North Carolina has switched to all remote classes after four clusters of COVID-19 cases broke out last weekend. On Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame announced that all classes would shift to online after 80 news cases of the virus were identified on Monday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 147 since in-person classes resumed on August 3.
WVU is allowing freshmen and graduate students back on campus for class this fall. That is part of a balancing act, described by Gee, with what he referred to as “the other pandemic.”
Gee said that “is all the collateral damage, which involves all the suicides and depressions. This generation is called the ‘lonely generation’ because they are very, very lonely,” Gee explained.
With the proper protocols in place and right response from students, Gee is still confident WVU can successfully navigate to the end of the fall semester in November.