Minnesota State Chancellor Devinder Malholtra has announced that all 37 Minnesota State colleges and universities will be suspending classes.

The decision was released in an email today sent to students and faculty. All universities that are currently on spring break will suspend classes March 16-22 with classes resuming on March 23. The five Minnesota State colleges that have spring break scheduled for next week will resume classes on March 30.

Chancellor Malholtra made the decision after reviewing a wide range of strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on campuses.

Although there will be no classes, administrators, faculty, and staff will spend the extra week exploring alternative options for classes to ensure safety amongst the community.  All campuses, including residential halls, dining facilities and student support services will remain open as the universities try to continue to accommodate to students despite the interruptions being caused by COVID-19.

Along with the cancellations to classes, the Minnesota State system is also taking several more measures to prevent the outbreak. All school and business related international travel was suspended in late February. That has now been extended to all out-of-state travel effective March 16. Minnesota State has advised that if anyone does travel, to plan as if you will not be able to return immediately.

Minnesota State has also cancelled all large gatherings totaling more than 100 attendees until May 1. The situation will then be reevaluated at that time.

Janitorial services have also been updated to follow new guidance from the CDC to ensure that campuses remain as safe as possible.

More information is available at  https://minnstate.edu/coronavirus/index.html.

This story will be update periodically as more information comes in.