At least 70 students have been temporarily banned from the Columbia university after violating the New York City school’s COVID-19 travel restrictions.
According to Columbia University spokesman Christopher Cashman, MBA students have travelled to the Turks and Caicos Islands, violating the school’s COVID-19 health protocol. The latter restricts groups or any official to travel until another announcement, Erudera College News reports.
“The Turks & Caicos trip was a group event that violated this policy and thus was met with disciplinary action,” he said but did not tell when the trip took place.
Among others, he said that barred students are not allowed to enter the campus until December 1, and that they must complete their academic commitments by participating in online classes.
“All of this is being done to protect the broader health of our community and, thankfully, to date our positive case rate remains low,” Cashman told CNN, claiming that in case the students violate the rules again, they will have to face stricter discipline.
This is not the first time that students in the United States are violating laws amid the pandemic. A month ago, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that fifteen students were arrested after allegedly using a student work visa job program in order to remain in the United States.
Since the beginning of November, the country has faced around 2.7 million new infections, more than 195,500 only on Friday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised Americans to not travel during Thanksgiving as well and has published guidelines on celebrating the holiday safely.
Due to COVID-19 developments, a lack of international students has been noted at American colleges and universities. Yet, the country has managed to be the home of more than 1 million students for the fifth consecutive year, according to the 2020 Open Doors Report.
Over 250,000 people have died in the United States as a consequence of COVID-19 whereas more than 11 million have been diagnosed with the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.