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Falwell: Liberty University will resume in-person classes after spring break

By Richard Chumney rchumney@newsadvance.com 2 hrs ago

Liberty University will continue to hold in-person classes when students return from spring break March 23, even as a wave of other colleges across Virginia and the nation have closed their campuses due to the growing coronavirus threat, President Jerry Falwell Jr. announced Friday.

“I don’t see us doing the same thing that other schools have done,” Falwell said in a taped interview streamed online with campus pastor David Nasser.

Falwell said the university has canceled “almost all gatherings of large crowds” on campus and will livestream convocation from a studio for the next several weeks instead of hosting the twice-weekly assembly in the 10,000-seat Vines Center.

Despite the moratorium on large gatherings, Falwell also said the university still plans to hold an outdoor graduation ceremony May 9. The university previously announced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will deliver the commencement address.

Graduation is “something we’re not going to deny our graduates who’ve worked so hard to reach that milestone,” he said.

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