"Cooperation and compliance with public health guidelines are absolutely essential. Those people who do not follow the guidelines - including wearing masks, avoiding parties and other gatherings, practicing healthy distancing, washing your hands, and getting tested - are putting everyone else at risk", Madeleine Estabrook, senior vice chancellor for student affairs at Northeastern said, as quoted on the university’s news page on Friday.
The students were discovered together in a room at the Westin Hotel that houses students in Boston, less than one mile from the university campus, on Wednesday night. University protocol prohibits crowded gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Testing negative for COVID-19 is not enough", Estabrook stressed.
The students and their parents were notified on Friday that they must vacate the Westin. They will need to be tested for the coronavirus before departing. Their dismissal will be for the entire fall semester, according to the university, which says that the dismissal can be contested at an expedited hearing.
The cost for the one-semester program ($36,500) will not be refunded, according to The Boston Globe.
Massachusetts has a total of over 120,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 8,900 deaths from COVID-19, according to the latest data from the state's department of public health.