Students are beginning to return to colleges and universities across the U.S. for spring or winter semester after the holiday break. Many schools were cautiously optimistic about their opening procedures. Some welcomed students back to campus but requiring vaccines and boosters, masks and compulsory testing. Others announced that they’d start the semester with remote learning and shift to in-person classes later in January, or postponed the first day of classes for a week. However, COVID had other plans, and institutions needed to come up with new alternatives on the fly.
Stanford University has put off the start of most in-person undergraduate classes for a third week after the school’s COVID-19 case count passed the 1,000 mark during the first week of the winter quarter. The university resumed classes online this week and students have returned to campus. The University is projecting that the number of positive cases will increase as students arrive and is dealing with how to quarantine affected individuals. As of Monday, close to 600 students are isolating in campus housing, some in university-designated isolation and some in their dorm rooms. Stamford is planning a phased return to in-person instruction, but the university advises instructors to be in touch with students to confirm the format of their class when instruction is scheduled to begin.
Dartmouth, on the other hand, said it was “not going back to the way we did things last year.” On December 29, the College’s COVID-19 leadership team said that the school would move forward with in-person classes and move-in, even with surging infection rates due to the omicron variant. School administrators cited the booster requirement, mask mandate and weekly testing as sufficient in protecting students from infection. However, on January 11, there were 536 active COVID-19 cases within the Dartmouth community, an increase of more than 100 from two days prior. Out of 10,444 tests administered over the previous seven days, 851 came back positive – a positivity rate of 8.15 percent. Despite the surge, officials opened dining facilities to sit-down dining this week.
As at most higher education institutions, The University of Minnesota is urging students to get boosters and tests before returning to campus. The university’s President Joan Gabel, announced that the school will give professors the flexibility to temporarily move from in-person teaching to a hybrid of online when needed. Other University employees who don’t have to be on campus can work from home as necessary.
Winona State University welcomed back students this week as planned but is requiring its students to “lay low” for the first two weeks of classes due to spikes in COVID-19 cases. Classes can be either in-person or online as planned, but individual professors can choose the delivery method. For the first two weeks of the semester, meetings and gatherings should be conducted via Zoom, those not teaching are encouraged to telework and mask-wearing is compulsory.
Northwestern’s seven-day positivity rate was 5.54 percent on January 7, with 909 new positive tests over the week according to the school’s COVID-19 dashboard. The University is so overwhelmed with the number of students in designated quarantine housing that they are doubling up isolation rooms and having newly-positive students move in with already-isolated students. Classes are online for now, and are not expected to resume with in-person instruction until later this month.
Duke University is requiring students to be vaccinated and boosted, and is in remote learning mode until at least January 18. The school reported 871 positive COVID-19 tests during the first week that students returned to campus. The case load marks a 2710 percent increase from the period from December 6 to 12, the last week the school reported results. But the Duke testing system suffered a gaffe on Sunday, when dozens of students were incorrectly informed that they had tested positive. The University said a data processing error incorrectly notified 67 students that they tested positive, but immediately told students of the error. In all, Duke has administered over 900,000 COVID-19 tests to students and employees over the past 17 months, and this was the first error.
For related articles see:
Colleges and Universities Boost their COVID Booster Requirements
How COVID is Helping Higher Ed Find Technology’s Goldilocks Scenario
Colleges and Universities Vary on Spring Semester Opening Plans