• Unvaccinated students, staff at Penn State must be regularly tested, wear masks in the fall,

Unvaccinated students and employees at Penn State University must submit to a regimen of COVID-19 testing this fall, mask indoors, and — if necessary — officials say they will take further steps to keep rising COVID-19 cases from hindering a full return to campus.

But Penn State President Eric Barron, speaking at a virtual campus town hall late Tuesday, gave no indication that a vaccine mandate is on the table, even if peer institutions in other states have imposed them.

That said, he and other speakers stressed that Penn State plans on a fully in-person classroom experience, and that means there are not necessarily provisions for students to attend classes remotely if they become ill and are being quarantined.

“Our plans for the semester are to offer a fully in-person experience including all of their classes,” Provost Nicholas Jones said. “So there will not be remote options for most classes. As in previous years, students will work with their instructors if they have to miss classes due to illness or, in this case, quarantine or isolation.”

Mr. Jones added, “It’s yet another reason to get vaccinated.”

A rise in cases nationally in recent weeks, fueled by the

aggressive and highly contagious delta variant, has college leaders uneasy as fall semester approaches. At Penn State, about half of the university’s 90,000 students are on the main University Park campus, but officials also are monitoring infection rates on and near about two dozen satellite campuses statewide.

Classes are due to begin Aug. 23.

Mr. Barron appealed to viewers who participated remotely to think about the stakes and roll up their sleeves.

“We’re still very much in the midst of a pandemic,” he said.

“Please, please get vaccinated. Think about all the other members of the community who may have children at home or other persons who are at risk,” he said. “We know that individuals that get vaccinated have mild or non-existent symptoms. It is the very best defense we have against COVID-19.”

Residence hall students will feel the precautions immediately upon arrival.

“For students, if you are coming to live on campus and you have not shared your vaccination status and you test positive, you will have 10 days in quarantine,” Mr. Barron said. “It will be off campus or at home. You will not be allowed on campus.”

Weekly testing may follow, and there are plans for surveillance testing too, officials said.

In Pennsylvania, a vaccine mandate by a state university would require approval of Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature. While not owned by the state, Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln universities are a separate tier of the commonwealth’s public system.

Penn State is among campuses that have offered incentives, including cash drawings, to encourage students and employees to get the shot on their own. It is making the vaccine available to those who want it. Officials say responses to student and employee surveys suggest strong vaccination rates, but they acknowledge those voluntary responses could be skewed to those who took the shots.

Depending on infection rates in the coming weeks, as identified by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Penn State officials said they could require all individuals — vaccinated and unvaccinated — to wear masks while indoors on campuses located in counties with substantial or high transmission, or when warranted by other circumstances. “This would include classrooms, meeting spaces and other shared public indoor areas,” a statement released after the town hall stated.

It said several counties in Pennsylvania “are currently experiencing substantial or high virus transmission, and the enhanced masking protocol is already in place on campuses located in these counties.”

Other contingencies could include physical distancing, curtailing or suspending some or all programs and activities, and returning to remote classes, officials said.

Testing and other requirements will kick in for students who have not informed the university that they have been fully vaccinated by Aug. 9.