Dear Boston College Students and Faculty:

The outbreak of COVID-19 has been a tremendous threat to the well-being of every individual in the community. The number of people getting infected and being confirmed has been growing at a rate that cannot be ignored. 

According to Patch.com, a Newton resident has been tested positive for COVID-19, which is the 28th case of the fast-spreading COVID-19 in Massachusetts. It is still not clear the details of the case but it is definitely a bigger threat than what has been implied from the previous updates email.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, “A person who is asymptomatic may be shedding the virus and could make others ill.” Therefore, simply asking students who has symptoms to self-quarantine would not be a very secure plan.

We students are very concerned about attending lectures during this special period, especially for classes that are larger than 50+ capacity. Therefore, we strongly urge the school to take all classes ONLINE. By doing this, we can both protect ourselves by lowering the risk of infection and maintaining our usual study process.

USC, Stanford, University of Washington, Seattle University have implemented live streams campus-wide. Many other colleges are now actively planning on taking all classes online. Some of BC Professors also chose to hold classes online. If we can change all classes into either live-streaming or recorded format, it will greatly decrease the chance of spreading the virus on campus.

We all have trust in BC faculty, students and administers that our concerns with the urgent problem will be fully and thoughtfully addressed.

Credits to Brandeis Student Hange Zhu for part of the statement