Colleges, universities plan for ‘normal’ semester in fall

Colleges and universities across America are pledging to reopen more fully in the fall, with some administrators worried that students won’t return to campus if normality, or some semblance of it, is not restored by September, writes Anemona Hartocollis for The New York Times.

Schools, from large state institutions to small private ones, have announced they are laying plans to bring students back to dormitories, deploy professors to teach most (if not all) classes in person and restart extracurricular activities, in stark contrast to the past academic year of largely virtual courses and limited social contact. The announcements of these changes coincide with the sending of acceptance letters to the class of 2025. Some schools have taken a financial hit because of deferred admissions or lost room-and-board fees.

Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois said in February that it would return to “traditional residential education” in the fall and Kansas State University announced that it too is planning a “more normal” fall semester, with largely in-person classes, events and activities. Ohio State University announced recently that it plans to offer “robust” in-person activities and classes, allowing students to live in residence halls and fans to attend football games. Katherine Fleming, New York University’s provost, told colleagues in a recent email of plans to have “all faculty teaching their classes in-person, in the classroom, in the fall 2021”. She conceded, however, that this would depend in part on whether enough professors were vaccinated by then.
Full report on The New York Times site