In an unsuspected but not surprising turn of events, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) campus is moving to online classes one week early.

In an email sent out by CMU President Tim Foster on Nov. 12, the move online is to both ensure students could receive a negative test before returning home and to support the community and medical and health officials who have supported the university each step of the way.

“All of us as adults need to have a plan that goes beyond just protecting the Mavily that now moves into protecting our loved ones,” John Marshall, the Vice President of Student Services and current co-chair of CMU’s “Safe Together, Strong Together” committee said. “In these final 10 days, all of us now have a different obligation, which is to go home safely and not inadvertently expose high risk or vulnerable populations like our aunts and uncles and grandparents and others.”

Last week the CMU campus saw a surge in cases of COVID-19 with 124 positive cases, almost four times higher than the second-highest positive cases in a week at 32. Foster’s previous message asked students at CMU to self-quarantine.

“We have I think 172 or 174 isolation beds, and we remain under 50 percent utilization for isolation beds,” Marshall said. “All of [the dormitories are being used] is the short answer, as the semester went on we’ve been opportunistic in finding suites and units that are self-contained that we can then utilize for isolation.”

As many students end up in quarantine and isolation across campus, options are also open off-campus as well.

“There are isolation units that are strategically open across campus and we’re also utilizing units off-campus, which are really good options because we can put a student into an individual room for isolation to the point where medical and public health officials have cleared them to return and clean that room and do a deep clean and then we’re ready to take on the students,” Marshall said.

To read Foster’s full message, go to the CMU website located here.