Lyon College will not reopen for face-to-face courses this fall, as previously planned, the college announced Friday.
The Batesville school is the only college to announce a shift from planned in-person instruction this fall to remote learning because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Back in May and early June, Arkansas colleges and universities announced they would return to face-to-face coursework, with limitations, this fall. Since then, Arkansas' active cases of covid-19, the disease the virus causes, has risen dramatically, including more than 1,000 new cases announced Thursday.
Lyon College trustees voted Thursday to continue remote instruction.
In a message to campus Friday, Lyon College President W. Joseph King said college leaders were confident even a month ago that face-to-face courses would be possible in the fall.
"However, recent discussions with health officials at both White River Medical Center and UAMS North Central highlighted the challenges in bringing students back safely," King wrote. "In addition, the development of protective plans, involving many entities at the state and federal levels, was much more involved and took longer than expected. As cases increased across the state, we knew what choice we had to make."