Notre Dame is suspending in-person classes and moving to virtual learning for undergraduate students until Sept. 2, but the school said the decision will not affect the current status of varsity athletics, including football.
Notre Dame president the Rev. John Jenkins made the announcement about classes Tuesday.
The decision comes after the university announced 147 confirmed positive tests for COVID-19 among 927 administered since Aug. 3. That included 80 positive tests on Monday alone, according to the university’s website.
None of the people who tested positive were hospitalized, and all but one were students.
Jenkins said he decided against sending students home after consulting with health care experts. Instead, the university is imposing restrictions on student activity, including limiting access to dormitories to residents and barring students from major gathering places on the campus in South Bend, Indiana.
“Our contact-tracing analysis indicates that most infections are coming from off-campus gatherings,” Jenkins said. “Students infected at those gathering passed it on to others, who in turn have passed the virus on to others, resulting in the positive cases we have seen.”
Notre Dame had remote learning through part of the summer as well. At the time, athletic director Jack Swarbrick spoke to ESPN’s Heather Dinich about the difficulties of having college athletics if campus isn’t open after a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence.
“It was a great opportunity to collectively share insights,” Swarbrick said at the time. “I want to be clear, I don’t think we offered any insights they didn’t already understand or appreciate, but a lot of the discussion was about the unique nature of college athletics being first and foremost the question we face is whether our universities will reopen and when. We’re never in a position to look at these issues purely through an athletic lens. There is no athletic calculus to engage in if our campuses aren’t reopened.”
At this time, however, the suspension is only temporary and will not disrupt the football program’s schedule or ability to move forward with workouts.
Michigan State announced Tuesday it would move to online classes for the fall semester and is asking students to stay home. Despite the Big Ten postponing the fall season, Michigan State will still allow its student-athletes to remain on campus.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.