College and university leaders who have dropped plans for in-person instruction in favor of online learning will still welcome a handful of students back to campus, despite COVID concerns.
A rise in coronavirus cases across the country, lags in testing and outbreaks at other schools have convinced the College of the Holy Cross to abandon its hybrid program and shift to a fully-remote fall semester, President Rev. Philip L. Boroughs announced Monday.
Only a “very limited” number of students will study on the Massachusetts campus this semester, Boroughs said.
“While we all hoped that we would be able to welcome our community back to campus this fall, recent developments have made it clear that a shift to remote learning is now the only course that allows us to meet our varied responsibilities to our students, faculty, staff and local Worcester community,” Boroughs said in an email to the campus.
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Holy Cross faculty members, staff and administrators have developed a variety of plans for fall learning, and are prepared for the shift back to online instruction, Boroughs said.
Here’s who can return to Holy Cross in-person:
- Students who require access to campus in order to succeed academically.
- Students whose academic work requires access to campus facilities in order to meet research and graduation requirements.
- Some international students.
- Certain winter sports athletes can apply to live on campus.
On-campus for face-to-face learning
Several other colleges and universities have reached similar conclusions about online vs. face-to-face learning:
- The Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio will hold some career and technical courses and some arts and sciences classes face-to-face.
- Lehigh University has invited only first-year students to live on campus and in-person instruction will be limited to certain academic programs.
- California’s colleges and universities are scaling back plans to bring students back to campus.
UB’s coronavirus page offers complete coverage of the impacts on higher ed.
