CMU delays start of spring semester due to pandemic, flu concerns

Saying the pandemic “will likely continue through the winter months,” Carnegie Mellon University is pushing back its spring semester to Feb. 1. It will condense the semester to 14 weeks with a shortened exam period, and spring break week will be replaced by two spring break days.

In an email Thursday to students and employees, Provost James Garrett wrote the adjusted schedule will reduce time on campus during flu season and assist international students by providing “more time for visa processing and travel to arrive for spring semester,” he said

The semester was set to have started about three weeks earlier, on Jan. 11, said spokesman Jason Maderer.

Amid concerns about COVID- 19 and flu infections, a number of colleges and universities have modified in- person semester start and end dates to reduce the number of weeks that students will be on campus. Officials at Carnegie Mellon and other universities this summer said significant numbers of overseas students would not arrive in time for the fall semester start and could have similar problems in the spring.

The share of international students arriving for fall was not immediately available Thursday from Mr. Maderer or Carnegie Mellon.

International students are a rapidly growing piece of Carnegie Mellon’s enrollment picture — a sum that has nearly doubled this past decade to 5,597.

Heinz College, which houses the university’s public policy, management and information systems programs, has the third- highest foreign enrollment among colleges at CMU. There are 630 international

students in the college — which announced an unspecified number of staff layoffs this week — according to fall 2019 university data. Of that total, 580 students are in master’s programs.

Caitlin Kizielewicz, a spokesperson for Heinz College, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday on the number of job reductions.

But an email from the Heinz dean explained the impact.

“Many of you know that our business model relies substantially on masters student tuition,” Dean Ramayya Krishnan wrote. “In the last few weeks, it became clear that the number of students deciding either to delay enrollment to spring or fall 2021 semesters or withdraw from further consideration would be significant and exceed expectation.”

As of last fall, about 13,300 students out of Carnegie Mellon’s total enrollment of 14,800 were based on the Pittsburgh campus, according to the university’s website.

The university opted to begin the fall semester online and transition to a mix of remote and in- person classes. On Thursday, Mr. Garrett described spring plans as follows:

“We currently intend to offer spring semester classes in the hybrid- learning approach similar to the fall semester ( i. e., remote only, in- person plus remote and in- person only), which allows flexibility in the way students choose to pursue their CMU education,” he wrote. “Our hybrid- learning approach allows students to continue their education throughout the spring semester even as the course of the pandemic evolves.”

Instead of spring break week, “two individual break days will be distributed throughout the semester,” Mr. Garrett wrote. “These two break days are in addition to the three days of break that were already scheduled on the spring 2021 calendar for mid- semester break and Carnival.”

Mr. Garrett provided the following outline for the spring semester:

• First day of classes: Feb. 1.

• Mini classes 3: Feb. 1March 19.

• Mini 4: March 22- May 7.

• Spring Carnival: April 15- 17.

• Last day of classes: May 7.

• Final exams: May 8- 16.

• Commencement: May 23.