Following recommendations by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, Northeastern University will move to online teaching to the students at its campuses in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Classes will be taught online or remotely to students at Northeastern’s Bay Area locations starting March 9. Faculty members will contact students with directions on how to access courses. 

Further decisions will be made according to public health agency guidelines.

“We are using a consistent approach across the Northeastern network to determine the appropriate course of action for each campus for if and when to move to online learning,” said university chancellor Ken Henderson, co-chair of Northeastern’s COVID-19 task force. “This includes working closely with local health authorities and assessing the conditions available to support the continuity of learning.”

Northeastern’s staff and faculty members who are not considered to be at risk of contracting COVID-19 will continue to work on site at the university’s Bay Area campuses. Those who are in at-risk categories may work from home, including: faculty and staff 60 and older; those who are pregnant; and those who have existing health conditions. 

Based on the guidance of public health officials in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, Northeastern University made a similar decision to move to online instruction for the students at its Seattle campus.

Northeastern launched its Silicon Valley campus in 2015 and its San Francisco campus three years later. Both are part of Northeastern’s global university system, which includes campuses in London, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Nahant, and Burlington, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Portland, Maine. 

“The university remains in close communication with public health agencies and experts,” said  Hillary Mickell, dean of Northeastern’s campuses in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. “As conditions change and new public health agency guidance is issued, we will update the campus community accordingly.”

Northeastern urges students to contact their primary care clinicians If symptoms of COVID-19 develop at any point, regardless of recent travel destinations, and faculty and staff to contact their appropriate healthcare providers. (Medical resources for each of Northeastern’s campuses can be found here.) Anyone who shows symptoms should self-isolate as soon as possible.

University updates to faculty, staff, and students will be issued via email and posted on the dedicated COVID-19 website. Northeastern is also equipping call-center operators to provide additional advice and assistance.

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