The University of Minnesota invited students back to campus last week for summer courses. The university is using its summer session to test its Chinese virus prevention protocols before all students return to campus in late August.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s 200,000 employees will continue to work from home another full year to prevent the spread of the Chinese virus. Other Silicon Valley companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, have already begun to explore remote working options.
Students around the country are realizing that online courses could cost them thousands in lost expenses. Students at the University of Maryland claim that the university is refusing to refund thousands in housing costs to students that will be taking online courses this fall.
Professors at Georgia Tech in circulated a petition last week that calls on administrators to keep courses online for the fall semester. Over 850 professors and teachers, or about 75% of all instructors and faculty, have signed onto the petition thus far.
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn will layoff 960 employees, 6 percent of its workforce, as the professional networking site struggles with falling demand for its recruitment services in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in Atlanta, Georgia, announced this week that they will keep their courses online for the fall semester. The decision was made in response to a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
Google has claimed that its Chinese virus contact tracing technology would not track users’ locations, but in order for the tech to work on Google’s Android smartphones, users must turn on the devices’ location tracking enabling Google to track them.
Uber is handing over contact tracing data to public health authorities to assist in tracking down people suspected of coming in contact with someone who has the Chinese virus, according to a report from Reuters.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasted the Trump administration while vigorously defending Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control during an interview with Fauci himself in which the Silicon Valley billionaire also promoted the use of masks.
Far-left Netflix had a disastrous second quarter that saw new subscriptions fall short of expectations, causing shares of the streaming entertainment company to plummet by as much as 12 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday. The company cited growing competition from TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app that is hugely popular with Gen Z.
The University of Akron has announced the elimination of 97 full-time faculty positions on Wednesday at a board meeting of the school’s trustees. One professor referred to the decision as a “bloodbath” for the school’s faculty members.
Liberty University has filed a $10 million defamation suit against the New York Times over the newspaper’s coverage of Liberty’s decision to reopen its campus in March.
Tulane University is threatening to expel students for partying in large groups during the Chinese virus pandemic. The school is also encouraging students to report their peers to the university police for engaging in “problematic behavior.”
Students at Harvard University are questioning the university’s refusal to reduce tuition costs for the upcoming academic year, when classes will be held entirely online. The cost of tuition for a year at Harvard University is $49,653.
Professors at universities and colleges around the country continue to express fear over plans to return to campus this fall.
Tech giant Apple has reclosed 11 of its stores in Southern California, Maryland, Ohio, and Tennessee due to local increases in Wuhan coronavirus infections. This makes a total of 91 American stores that have been closed back down after opening.
Amherst College announced this week that it will adopt a series of strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus on campus this fall. Under the new policies, students will not be permitted to leave campus without permission from college officials.
Students around the country are beginning to express concern that they will not receive the “true college experience” when classes resume this fall. Harvard University, for example, announced this week that all courses for the upcoming academic year will be offered online.
Harvard University announced on Monday that all of its courses for the 2020-2021 academic year will be held online. Despite all classes reamining online, Harvard has refused to lower its high tuition costs.
Professors at universities and colleges across the country are pushing back against plans to reopen campuses over concerns that they could be infected with the Chinese virus.
Students and staff at the Ohio State University will now be required to wear masks as well as sign a pledge regarding their involvement in stopping the further spread of the Chinese virus. Anyone who refuses to comply with the new guidelines will face “accountability measures,” according to the school.
According to a recent report, Google’s sister company Verily Life Sciences has suspended employee spot bonuses for the remainder of 2020, redirecting money into diversity and inclusion programs much to the anger of many employees.
Dartmouth College announced this week that it will reopen its campus in September to approximately 50 percent of its student body. First-year students will be invited to live and study on campus for the entirety of the upcoming academic year. Most Dartmouth classes will remain online in a similar fashion to most college and universities taught classes in the Spring semester.
Researchers at MIT recently announced that they have developed an autonomous robot technology using UV light that may keep large, open, spaces free from coronavirus. The research team hopes that the technology will eventually be used by warehouses, schools, airlines, and grocery stores.
Twitter’s Chinese coronavirus “get the facts” system appears to be broken, as the platform is automatically applying the fact-checking label to random tweets that contain combinations of the words “frequency” and “oxygen.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s other company, payment processing service Square, is withholding between 20 and 30 percent of the money that merchants receive from customers. One small business owner commented: “It may not be the coronavirus that puts us out of business but actually the greed of Square that breaks the camel’s back.”
Coronavirus-related deaths in the United States remains on a downward trajectory as cases rise nationwide, recent data shows.
The MIT Technology Review recently published an article noting that a number of new coronavirus contact tracing apps have been introduced that invasively track user data, so the publication has created a “Covid Tracing Tracker” to determine what each app does with the user data it collects.
Princeton University is the only Ivy League institution that will require all of its applicants to provide an SAT or ACT score next year. Most administrations of the SAT exam were canceled this spring in response to the Chinese virus pandemic. Princeton says it is evaluating its admissions process and may follow its Ivy League peers in putting a hold of at least one-year on its test requirement, but has not done so yet.
According to a recent report, more than seven in ten Americans refuse to use coronavirus contact tracing apps developed by tech giants like Apple and Google.
A recent poll revealed that a majority of Princeton University students would take a “gap year” if Princeton’s campus did not reopen for the fall semester. A majority of college students polled earlier this spring said that the quality of their education dropped significantly when classes moved online in March at the outset of the Chinese virus pandemic.
Amazon is deploying AI known as “distance assistants,” which will warn the company’s warehouse workers if they get too close to their co-workers as the company continues its battle against the Chinese virus.
The University of Wisconsin announced on Sunday that it will reopen its 26 campuses for the fall semester. American universities and colleges were forced to close in March at the outset of the Chinese virus pandemic.
Multiple States across the country are reportedly walking back promises to use contact tracing systems developed by Silicon Valley tech firms such as Google and Apple.
A new poll revealed that 31 percent of British students believed that their college education in 2020 was a poor value for the money. A majority of students claimed that their university had not properly justified the cost of tuition.
As many Apple customers are working to maintain social distancing during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the tech giant is reportedly working on a way to take group selfies with friends when not together.
3M has reportedly filed a lawsuit against a merchant on Amazon selling the company’s masks for more than 18 times their list price. The target of the lawsuit, Mao Yu and his affiliated companies, made $350,000 selling the masks.
Social media giant Twitter has reportedly begun aggressively fact-checking tweets linking 5G wireless technology to the Wuhan coronavirus, but the fact-checking system is reportedly displaying many errors leading to mockery from users.
As students across the United States begin to return to school, some schools are requiring students to wear tracking beacons to prevent the spread of the Chinese virus.
Rental app Airbnb has reportedly seen a huge surge in demand for short vacations as travel restrictions due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic are lifted.
