COVID-19 Resource Center for Higher Education

Institutions need to begin finalizing long-term changes and communicating potential continued disruptions to their students, faculty, and staff. Preliminary responses for the upcoming Fall include:

Maintaining a virtual campus, either in part or in full; OR

• A recent article from Inside Higher Ed highlights the ‘half-campus’ model, whereby institutions – particularly highly selective institutions that can afford to do so – will allow only half of their undergraduates to attend classes on campus come the fall. This typically manifests in first-year students attending in the fall, and seniors in the spring, though some, like Harvard, Georgetown, and Emory, will also allow students with clinical needs or unsafe home situations to also attend in person.
• Brown University is planning a three-term academic schedule whereby undergraduate students will be on campus for two of the three semesters, though most classes will take place online regardless of the student’s living arrangement.
• Similarly, the College of William & Mary is planning an in-person, condensed fall semester, for which classes will begin a week early and end before Thanksgiving, sans Fall Break.
• Oakland University has announced a hybrid Fall semester: “At this point, indications are that COVID-19 will remain a threat into the fall,” Oakland’s president, Ora Pescovitz. “As we prepare for the fall semester, we are planning for a hybrid approach that includes both face-to-face and remote instruction.”
• San José State University in California will likely conduct a hybrid range of courses, focusing on offering lab-based, fine arts, and performing arts programs in-person with other online: “We obviously would love to do in-person come fall, but we have to be ready for all scenarios,” said Kenneth Mashinchi, San José State spokesperson.
• Several large institutions in Canada, including the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria, will conduct most classes online through the next semester. McGill University in Montreal will offer its Fall 2020 courses “primarily through remote delivery platform” as well as provide its extracurricular activities virtually.
• The Netherlands will allow “a maximum of 20 percent of students and employees at universities, colleges, and vocational institutions… to be on site when Dutch tertiary institutions reopen on 15 June,” per the University World News. In the fall, institutions may allow on-site education outside of typical rush hours (i.e., 11am to 3pm and after 8pm) to avoid overcrowding of public transportation, necessitating remote learning for 80 percent of all students.
• In May, the California State University System announced that most instruction across its 23 campuses will be delivered virtually in the Fall 2020 term. The policy includes “limited exceptions for in-person teaching, learning, and research activities that cannot be delivered virtually, are indispensable to the university’s core mission, and can be conducted with rigorous standards of safety and welfare.”
• Similarly, three-quarters of universities in South Korea will continue with online learning through the next semester, according to a survey of 193 private, public, and national four-year universities nationwide conducted by the Korean Association of Private University Presidents in May.

Resuming in-person programs and services with social distancing parameters in place.

• University of Virginia says it plans to spend nearly $400,000 on ‘Welcome Back Kits’ that include protective equipment. These kits will include two cloth masks, two containers of hand sanitizer, and a tool that can pull door handles so that students and staff will be protected while on campus. Larger classes will take place online.
• Though schools in the University of North Carolina system will reopen in the fall, students living on campus are encouraged to “pack light” should an outbreak occur, according to a move-in guide from UNC Chapel Hill.
• Rice University is building nine outdoor spaces – five in open-sided tents and four in semi-permanent structures – to host classes and student activities.
• Citing an internal study, Cornell University is opening for in-person instruction come the Fall based on findings that physical campus life would lead to better health outcomes for the university community than holding classes online. This decision is premised on the belief that the campus will be a magnet for students regardless of course delivery method and that the university will be better able enforce testing, track cases, and support positive health outcomes with in-person operations.
• Institutions in some regions of China are partially re-opening after weeks of lockdown, according to University World News: “South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has partially reopened its colleges and universities, with seniors and students with medicine-related majors returning to campuses, as the COVID-19 epidemic wanes… preventive measures include wearing masks in classes, scattered distribution of seats in classrooms and having meals separately.” Similarly, some universities in Shanghai are taking students’ temperatures, disinfecting luggage, and taking other precautions upon re-entry to campus.
• Universities in Spain are also re-opening in a phased approach: Per University World News, “Most universities plan a phased return of students and researchers, with the first phase starting in early June if things continue to improve. As a result, the academic year could be extended until July, and some students may have to sit exams or conduct lab work in September. This could mean an overlap with the following academic year, or a delayed start for the upcoming term.”
• Israeli and Albanian universities and colleges are also re-opening partially. In Israel, groups of up to 15 students permitted for laboratory classes and other hands-on courses. While most programs and services will continue virtually, Yaffa Zilbershats of the Council for Higher Education states, “limited access to campus is necessary for students in order to fulfil all their academic assignments at the end of the semester, including holding examinations.”
• University of Mary Washington, a public institution in Virginia, plans to re-open in the fall: “Given what we know at this moment, it is our hope and intention to resume our scheduled academic operations on campus with the start of fall classes on August 24, and we remain committed to our residential college experience,” President Troy Paino wrote. “That being said, we will be stringent about following federal and state guidelines to promote individual and public health.”
• William Jewell College, a private liberal arts college in Missouri, also intends to re-open in the fall beginning on August 26: Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, William Jewell’s president, states: “Our size and expert partnerships allow us to pivot quickly as health protocols change… We will be ready to welcome our students the moment it is deemed appropriate to reopen the campus. It may look a little different than a traditional semester, but as The Critical Thinking College®, we will adapt and co-create our new reality together.”
• Purdue University recently released plans to re-open its campus in the fall with strict social distancing measures in plans. Preliminary ideas include “spreading out classes across days and times to reduce their size, more use of online instruction for on-campus students, virtualizing laboratory work, and similar steps” as well as “[protecting] the more vulnerable members of our community by allowing (or requiring, if necessary) them to work remotely.

For additional campus housing plans, see the Association of College and University Housing Officers International (ACUHO-i)’s Campus Housing Plan Tracker.