Towson University announced Friday it will move all remaining final exams to a virtual setting after the school saw a “significant increase” in positive COVID-19 cases over a day among students, the college said.
In a Friday email to students, faculty and staff, university officials said the University Health Center had received reports of 112 new cases, mostly among students.
The number of positive cases among faculty and staff remain in the single digits.
From Dec. 2 to 15, 166 students and 4 faculty and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the university.
Officials chose to move finals virtually after consulting with the school’s COVID Response Leadership Team and its Medical Advisory Committee.
“The university is not closing,” wrote Melanie Perreault, Towson’s provost and executive vice president of Academic and Student Affairs, in a campus-wide email. “Today’s decisions were driven by the effort to de-densify settings where large gatherings are taking place.”
The school also said it would close its dining halls for in-person eating and will cancel all non-academic and nonessential indoor events that involve eating or drinking through the end of December.
Towson previously announced in September plans to postpone its December commencement ceremony until May.