Howard University’s Howard Homecoming — an historic and annual event which typically attracts tens of thousands of people to the institution — has been cancelled for 2020, reports ABC 7 WJLA news.
Due to the large crowds Howard Homecoming draws, the event would be too difficult to conduct safely in the age of COVID-19, said Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, Howard’s president.
“You can’t put African Americans at risk, by bringing them into those environments, because all of those … who attend those events are younger people,” Frederick told WJLA. “We have alum[ni] who are in the risk category and then those younger people have to go back home to places where their grandparents are going to be.”
Howard will partially reopen with a hybrid academic model this fall, in which some students and faculty will work in the classroom and others will work online.