Nearly 600 UC San Diego students, faculty and staff have signed an open letter asking the school to drop plans to place thousands of undergraduates in dorms and resume some in-person classes due to the threat posed by the novel coronavirus.

The letter notes that many universities, including Notre Dame and the University of Alabama, experienced COVID-19 outbreaks when they opened dorms and that “to imagine that UCSD will be an exception to this rule is both arrogant and negligent.”

The plea comes during a holiday weekend in which 2,600 students were confined to their dorms at San Diego State, where nearly 300 students have tested positive for COVID-19.

The UC San Diego letter was co-authored by Danny Heinz, a doctoral student who told the Union-Tribune, “I am concerned that there will be an outbreak that could spread beyond campus to the community and that it could sacrifice the education of children, shut down business and affect the public’s health.”

Read the full story on LATimes.com.