Michigan State University will bring students back on campus for the Fall 2020 semester, President Samuel Stanley announced on Wednesday.
In a letter to the Spartan community, Stanley said the COVID-19 task force has been meeting and are planning on how to responsibly open the campus for students, staff and faculty.
"Work has been proceeding for some time in critical areas, including alterations to our academic calendar, approaches to contact tracing and testing, managing our residence halls, and allocating and scheduling our class spaces. New workgroups are being formed to address other key issues, and we will continue to seek input whenever possible. At this point, we believe that a values-driven return is possible and can be done in a way that mitigates the risks to our community," he said.
Classes for the fall will begin on Sept. 2 as previously scheduled, and there will be both in-person and online ocmponents to instruction.
MSU will end all in-person instruction on Wednesday, Nov. 25 with the rest of the instruction and final exams going remotely for the three weeks.
"Students will have the option of returning to their permanent residences for the Thanksgiving holiday and not returning to campus, or remaining on campus until the semester ends. This plan is designed to address epidemiologic models that suggest a potential resurgence in COVID-19 cases in December and give students the opportunity to return to their permanent residences before peak influenza season if they choose. Because of this new schedule, we will forego the pilot fall break that had been scheduled for October. We hope to return to the fall break in future years," Stanley said.
For those students who don't want to return, they will provide an enhanced selection of remote classes to begin or continue their MSU education.
Also, for international students who may have trouble getting to campus, they will provide remote classes.
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