Approximately 3,000 Rutgers University students will be permitted to continue living in residence halls on the New Brunswick campus despite the schools’ announcement earlier this week that it was sending nearly all students home due to coronavirus fears, campus officials said.

Students say they have been filling out applications to remain in some of Rutgers’ 18,000 residence hall beds even though the campus is largely empty. Some are international students who can’t return to their native countries or graduate students working in labs on research projects that must continue.

Others are students in medical, pharmacy and health science schools who have clinical rotations, classes and other duties that can’t be moved online or canceled. Some are students who say they need to stay on campus, but their fraternities and sororities are not allowing them to remain in Greek houses just off campus.

Students in Rutgers Biomedical and Health Science schools said there has been confusion over who gets to stay, including some pharmacy students who said they were told by school officials to get a hotel room if they were denied permission to stay in their residence halls.

But Rutgers officials said Thursday they are reviewing applications and believe they have granted permission to all students who have no option other than to live on campus.

“The health and well-being of our students is a foremost priority for the university. While Rutgers initiated Spring Break early this week to curtail the spread of COVID-19, all students who needed to continue to reside in on-campus housing, including RBHS students, have to the best of our knowledge been accommodated,” Rutgers officials said in a statement.

Rutgers announced Tuesday it was sending nearly all 70,000 students home immediately and moving classes online. Classes for Thursday and Friday were canceled ahead of Spring Break. Students were told their classes would be offered online after Spring Break.

Students were told to leave the dorms as soon as possible and stay away until at least until at least April 3.

However, Rutgers officials said some classes, including some biomedical and health science courses, could not be moved online and medical students and others working in hospitals and health care fields could not go home.

“Classroom instruction is being moved online. However, given the clinical components of health-related education and the university’s commitment to the academic progression of its students, clinical rotations and instruction will continue to occur. Consistent with CDC guidelines, the university is making all possible arrangements for social distancing,” the statement said.

Several students posted on social media that they got letters from Rutgers turning down their applications to remain in their residence halls even though their professors told them they had to stay.

THREAD #COVID19: RBHS students at Rutgers University are required to go to class and stay on campus on Thursday and Friday during this pandemic while all other Rutgers students have had classes cancelled. Some students don’t even have housing for these days... — shalissa (@azuddin422) March 11, 2020

Cara Trulli, a Rutgers senior in her fourth year of a six-year pharmacy program, said she was told she had to be out of her sorority house by noon Thursday even though she was told she still had to go to a pharmacy class on Friday.

“I emailed my course coordinator about my Friday classes because I had to pack up my entire room and bring everything home. The dean told me to apply through Rutgers to stay on campus, even though I said I was off campus so that’s not an option for me. He said another option was a hotel room," said Trulli, 22.

Rutgers officials eventually canceled the Friday pharmacy class after multiple students complained, Trulli said.

She eventually moved out, but the transition out of her sorority house was stressful, she said.

“Whenever I took a study break, I would throw everything I own into a bin, load it into my car, load it into my boyfriend’s car -- had to ask my mom to come bring more bins. It was not a neat move out,” Trulli said.

Rutgers officials sent a letter Thursday to all students living off-campus in apartments or fraternities or sororities asking that they move out as soon as possible.

“We are asking that students currently residing in off-campus rental housing give serious consideration to returning to their homes during the time that in-person classes are suspended. As you know, in-person classes are suspended at least until April 3rd, at which time a decision will be made regarding future in-person classes,” the letter said.

Rutgers President Robert Barchi also declared a state of emergency for the university Thursday. While the state university will still officially remain open, most employees were given new guideline allowing them to work from home if possible.

“The preliminary guidance provides flexibility and relief for employees whose children attend schools that have been closed, must care for loved ones who have contracted COVID-19, who are sick themselves, or who are required to self-isolate,” employees were told in a memo from university officials.

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