Gettysburg College today gave up its hope of providing a residential learning experience for all of its students, announcing that only first-year students, transfer students, international students, and select other students who are unable to return home due to personal or academic reasons will be allowed to stay in on campus.
This will be a reduction of about 60 percent of the residents, from about 2,200 students to about 900 students.
The announcement follows a complete quarantine of all students on Monday and the discovery of another 31 cases of COVID-19 among students since Sunday.
The college is also reporting three cases of COVID-19 among employees.
The students who go home will continue their classes via remote learning.
“Together with our public health consultants, faculty, and board of trustees, the college determined that our best path forward for the remainder of the semester is to de-densify campus by reducing the number of students in residence,” said an email sent to the campus community.
The college said students who were eligible to remain on campus would receive a notification, and the rest should make plans to depart from campus.
The move-out will occur in a phased departure, beginning tomorrow and ending Monday. The college will allow two family members and one friend to help with the move-out.
A decision about the spring semester has not yet been made.