Marist College has suspended 15 students who attended an off-campus party last week and did not follow coronavirus precautions, according to school President Dennis Murray.
Murray announced the suspensions in a notice Friday to students of the upstate New York liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie.
“If this trend continues, we’ll have no choice but to completely close the campus and require students to finish the semester online,” Murray wrote. “None of us wants this outcome to occur, so please help us to ensure it doesn’t happen.”
The suspended students attended a house party on Wednesday night, did not wear masks and did not social distance, said Deb DiCaprio, vice president of student affairs and dean of students. She said all 15 students are temporarily suspended pending an investigation and face the possibility of being sent home for the semester for not following the school's coronavirus policies.
DiCaprio noted that several colleges across the country have moved all classes online and sent students home after seeing spikes in coronavirus infections since students returned to campus earlier this month.
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Marist has nearly 6,700 students, including more than 5,000 traditional undergraduates.
