As precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19 cause massive changes to daily life, the Oakland University Office for Student Involvement (OSI) announced in an email Tuesday, March 17 that all programs, activities and events would be canceled through Saturday, April 25.

“All student organization meetings are canceled in the Oakland Center for the remainder of the academic year (through April 25),” the OSI said in their Student Organization Communication email. “No student organization meetings can be scheduled outside the Oakland Center (i.e., classrooms).”

The OSI encourages student organizations to cancel any outstanding food orders they have with Chartwells or other vendors. The OSI also asks that student organizations cancel any OU service agreements they have and to notify Senior Director Jean Ann Miller and Assistant Director Stephanie Jurva of the canceled contracts. Miller and Jurva will help assist with any cancelations.

With the cancellations of the semester events, the Student Activities Funding Board (SAFB) is no longer taking or reviewing any allocation requests for the rest of the winter semester.

According to Student Program Board (SPB) President Chris Russell, all upcoming SPB events have been canceled. During this time, SPB is currently taking applications for next year’s e-board.

“SPB is officially done for this year,” Russell said. “We are still going to be working on creating transition binders as well as ushering the staff for next year, which is going to be complicated by this because we primarily did a lot of in-person advertising for those positions. We have already selected a president for the upcoming year. He is an experienced member of SPB, so hopefully he will be able to bring some veteran leadership to the organization next year and carry them through this trying time.”

In a statement posted to Facebook on Friday, March 13, Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC) announced that all upcoming general body meetings will still be held via video and conference calling into the meetings. Updates on locations and the status of future meetings can be found on OUSC’s social media pages. OUSC is currently taking applications for next year’s e-board until Friday, April 10 at 10 p.m. 

Along with the cancellation of on-campus student organization meetings, the OSI announced other on-campus cancellations. The Hillcrest fitness center, university sponsored events and facility rentals, intramural sports, club sports and group exercise classes are also canceled until April 25. The Recreation Center and the Priority Health Fitness Court are closed until Monday, March 30, with Kresge Library closed until Tuesday, March 31. People still living on campus can use the Recreation and Athletic Outdoor Complex — playfields and track — from dawn to dusk.

The Golden Grizzlies Pantry will have limited access going forward. Individuals in need of assistance should email [email protected]. University officials are working to develop a plan to continue providing services to those in need. More details are expected to be announced soon.

Due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic and the federal, state and university response to it, all cancellations and updates are subject to change.