Move to Online Teaching

Loyola University New Orleans is closely monitoring the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Today, March 11, 2020, after consultation with city, state, and public health officials, Loyola University New Orleans President Tania Tetlow announced plans to suspend face-to-face instruction and move all undergraduate and graduate classes, including law classes, to online instruction, effective Monday, March 16, for the rest of the semester.

Out of an abundance of caution and care and concern for our community—our communities on campus and in the greater New Orleans area and beyond—we have been preparing for this eventuality. Our primary goals are to protect our students, faculty, and staff and to limit any exposure or community spread of COVID-19 while ensuring the continuity of our teaching and research mission. We are grateful for the patience and cooperation of our students, faculty, staff, and university partners as we go through this transition.

The university currently remains open and operational with this decisive action to take appropriate and significant measures to protect the health of the community. As we implement the move to online instruction and other social distancing plans, Loyola has suspended all Thursday and Friday classes and asked all nonessential faculty and staff to work from home to minimize impact on operations during this transition.

Starting Monday, students will meet all academic requirements remotely. They are allowed and encouraged to return home to work from there, and the university aims to help them in that process. Students who need to remain on campus for extenuating circumstances will also receive instruction remotely and must prepare for limited on-campus activities and interactions. All graduate and law students will transition to remote work wherever possible.

There are no plans for any adjustments to tuition.  The University has put significant time and resources into planning and preparation for this sort of scenario. It's a wonderful development in the digital age to know we can move to teaching online swiftly and continue our academics with minimal disruption to students' academic progress.  Your student will have the same faculty member teaching the same course but in online format, which pedagogically has been shown to be as effective as classroom instruction for student learning.   We realize that there may be a perception that there could be a loss of community feel in moving to online, but our instructional design experts are working to make sure that our students will continue to benefit from the same small class size; personal attention and community feel that are the hallmarks of a Loyola education.  

The university has established a website, loyno.edu/coronavirus, where all communications to the campus community are archived and Loyola’s social distancing plan, continuity of teaching plan, and FAQs related to coronavirus, travel, academic affairs, student affairs, residential life, and dining plans can all be found.

We will continue to update the community regularly to keep them informed of additional measures. Schools and professors will be in contact with their students and will communicate more specific guidance related to courses and programs directly.

We encourage everyone to stay calm and patient during this transition and to work with your professors, supervisors and staff to address unanticipated challenges as they arise. Questions may also be sent to letters@loyno.edu.

This weekend, at a downtown conference, a faculty member and two of our undergraduate students had lunch with someone who was subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19. They discovered and reported this information last night, Tuesday, March 10.

The professor and these two students, who all live off-campus, are currently all self-isolating and do not have any symptoms. President Tetlow has spoken to the director of state public health, who shares that there is not a reason to broaden that circle more widely—those who later interacted with the faculty and students do not also need to self-isolate. We will continue to update you on all such information.

Other faculty, students, and staff who recently returned from personal travel or study abroad in level-3 watch countries have also been asked to self-report and to self-isolate. Some of them have already completed this process. We encourage everyone to continue to show kindness, care and compassion to anyone in self-isolation while remaining vigilant and practicing social distancing. Care packages, letters, Facetime, texts, and skyping are always welcomed as a way to keep our community closeness while in distance.

Loyola is taking every precaution to make our transition to online with minimal disruption to academics. We are taking additional steps to ensure faculty training on Blackboard and other technologies and asked our faculty to get creative to ensure this is the case. We do not expect this transition to slow individual students’ paths to graduation. Should you have concerns about particular courses and plans, we ask that you work with your professors, advisors and deans, in that order, to ensure your needs are met.

At this point, we feel that it is too soon to make a decision about Commencement and do not recommend canceling any travel plans that you have at this time. It may be worth delaying making plans if you haven’t already. We are watching the situation closely and will be in touch with graduating students and their families in the event that any Commencement plans change.

Yes. Advisors are being asked to meet with students using video conferencing, phone calls, and email. If you are having difficulty getting in touch with your advisor please contact Dr. Paul Buehler in the Student Success Center.

President Tetlow has made it very clear that first and foremost, she wants students and their loved ones to remain safe, healthy and well. In the event that you fall sick, your first priority should be to get better. In recent days, the Provost has communicated to faculty to be flexible about mandatory attendance rules and to work with students who are ill. This extends to synchronous Zoom meetings. Should you become sick, please alert your professor and work with him or her, your advisor and your dean, in that order and as needed, to be sure they are aware and can work together to best help you through this situation.