Changes are sprung on colleges’ spring plans
Some put classes online or delay semester’s start
Scores of universities and colleges have upended spring schedules as the coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. shows no sign of slowing.
After a rocky start to the fall, uncertainty over the next few months of the pandemic has pushed universities coast to coast to overhaul in-person learning, spring break and graduation.
Colleges and universities in California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, North Carolina, Indiana, Vermont, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Washington state have announced changes, and more are almost certain to follow.
“This decision (to learn virtually) is the only responsible one available to us at this time,” California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White said in a Sept. 10 news release announcing that the 23 college systems would continue virtual instruction into the spring.
At the time, Cal State was one of the only universities to require spring virtual instruction.
Then the University of California-Berkeley announced Sept. 29 that the majority of classes would be online. Washington State University’s provost said Sept. 30 that the school was planning for most spring classes to be online, according to local reports.
More recently on Oct. 9, the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., moved most classes online for the spring 2021 semester.
Other schools, such as Wichita State University in Kansas and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, will offer students a choice between taking courses fully online or a hybrid model that combines limited in-person and online instruction.
Still, there is not a clear consensus on learning styles for the spring semester.
But a growing number of colleges have delayed their start times, either by a week, a month or, in the case of Middlebury College in Vermont, two months. The college plans to start its spring semester March 1.
At many schools, administrators also have decided to scrap plans for spring break.
Some are instead adding shorter holidays scattered throughout the semester. Purdue University in Indiana is requiring three “reading days” for students. Davidson College in North Carolina is giving students two short midweek breaks in March and April. Texas A&M University is shortening spring break to a single day in March.
But others have opted to cancel the vacation entirely, aiming to reduce travel to minimize the spread of infection.
“Losing spring break will be a disappointment to many,” said Brian Sandoval, president of the University of Nevada-Reno, one campus that is dropping the break. “But an uninterrupted spring semester ... gives us our best chance to ‘Protect the Pack.’ ”
The university hasn’t yet canceled or changed its May 2021 in-person commencement. For most campuses, that date is still in the works, depending on what the winter and early spring look like for the rest of the country.
But some have already started plan
ning on either an in-person or virtual graduation. Many in-person plans, like ones at University of Mississippi and University of Notre Dame, are conditional – subject to whether the pandemic worsens in the winter and spring.
At other universities, such as George Washington, officials have said it is unlikely that commencement will be held in-person. GWU officials predict that gathering restrictions will still be in place by May.
“Managing this pandemic has called on us all to do our part to keep the community healthy and safe, and to support one another through these difficult decisions,” officials said.