The campus will be closed, and students will earn the rest of their credits through distance learning, the college announced Tuesday.

A letter from Paul Smith’s President Cathy Dove says the college is trying to ensure student access to high-speed internet and computer devices while off campus.

“It is as difficult to write this news as I am sure it is to read it,” Dove wrote. “Our students enter Paul Smith’s never expecting a scenario such as this. For graduating seniors the impact on end-of-college events creates an especially heartfelt sense of loss.”

Ryan Novak, a senior Natural Resource Conservation Management major and a military veteran, said many students are struggling to adapt their housing and work to these rapidly changing situations.

Novak said the college students’ lifestyle is built around the college and that without it, many are left to quickly rearrange their lives.

“We’re looking at a lot of displacement,” Novak said. “Some students aren’t even able to work because their job was working for the college.”

Novak said the fortunate ones are able to break their housing leases and move home. He said he has moved from his home off Keese Mill Road back to Delaware. He plans on coming back up to collect his belongings and then finding a job in Delaware as he finishes his college classes online.

He said he believes Paul Smith’s College has done the best it can under the circumstances.

“Given the situation, I think they’ve handled it well,” Novak said. “I just think that it’s a (bad) situation all around. You can’t really sugarcoat it or make it any better.”

Plans for how to handle commencement will be decided by April 1, college officials said.

Novak said he has accepted he likely will not have a graduation ceremony. He said in the military he got used to never having a satisfactory goodbye.

“It was just another cog in the wheel. You move to another duty station, you leave everybody you’ve known for the past five years, and that’s it,” Novak said. “I was looking forward to graduation to kind of break that chain that’s been the last eight years of my life.”

He said the Paul Smith’s Student Veteran Association is having a final get-together in Paul Smiths this weekend before they all go their separate ways.

The add and drop period of this semester has been extended, and pre-registration for the next semester has been delayed.

International trips scheduled for this summer have been canceled. Students will be provided with alternative learning experiences to achieve their planned academic credit.

The campus will be closed for any reason except to collect personal belongings. The college plans to issue refunds for unused room and board. The deadline for removing belongings from the residence halls is May 1, and students are asked to schedule their visits to campus with the office of Residence Life and Housing.

The college is also working on forwarding students’ mail to them.

While most student employment will cease on March 23, jobs funded directly by grants and essential positions that can be performed remotely may be approved by the supervising vice president.

Faculty and staff are to report to work through March 22 as usual. Most employees will work remotely. Faculty and staff whose jobs require them to be on campus will be eligible for additional leave time or premium pay.

“We are committed to maintaining full pay for all permanent employees at a minimum through the end of the semester,” Dove wrote.

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North Country Community College

North Country Community College students had their classes canceled this week. Next week is spring break, and when they return on March 30, their instruction will all be carried out online.

NCCC Director of Communications Chris Knight said the college is closing its Saranac Lake, Malone and Ticonderoga campuses, closing its offices and having staff and faculty work from home, with some exceptions.

“Students are being discouraged from returning to campus after spring break. All academic requirements that previously anticipated a return of students after spring break are moving to provide remote participation options until such time as a safe return to campuses by students is possible,” Knight wrote in an email. “While most of our residence hall students have already returned home, we do have a small number (approximately two dozen) who will remain in the residence halls during Spring Break due to special circumstances, and they will receive food service via takeout/delivery only.”

Knight said the college’s COVID-19 Task Force is meeting on a daily basis.

He said the college has not made a decision about commencement yet.