Temple University Rome has dismissed its students and moved classes online for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester, wrote Fay Trachtenberg, the interim director and acting dean of Temple Rome, in a Temple Now announcement on Saturday.
Students at Temple Rome need to leave Italy and return home, Trachtenberg wrote.
“We made the change because a critical point came when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of State elevated their travel warnings last night to Level 3 for all of Italy,” wrote Raymond Betzner, the university’s spokesperson, in an email to The Temple News. “That means the CDC has advised against all non-essential travel to Italy.”
Temple Rome will continue class online after spring break on March 9.
This announcement comes a day after Temple Japan informed students that they will suspend in-person classes for two weeks beginning on March 2, The Temple News reported.
In Italy, there are over 1,000 cases of coronavirus as of today, Al Jazeera reported.
“No one from Temple has the disease,” Betzner wrote in an email to The Temple News.
If students return to Main Campus, they are expected to inform Student Health Services, Trachtenberg wrote. Trachtenberg also said that she can help students in need of housing upon their return.
“I realize many of you had hoped we could continue the spring semester together, but your safety and welfare are our highest priority,” Trachtenberg wrote in the announcement.
Staff will remain on campus in Rome to help students go home and support them through online classes but some staff may return to the United States depending on certain events, Betzner wrote.
Be the first to comment