The latest surge of Covid-19, spurred largely by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, is starting to recede in many regions of the country, and the decrease in case rates is bringing with it a welcome return to in-person classes and more normal campus operations at several colleges and universities.
Faced with a 300,000-cases-per-day national spike in the virus just as the spring semester was about to begin, a number of prominent institutions elected in December and January to require a combination of public health precautions, including mask mandates, faculty, staff and student vaccinations and boosters, and a switch to online learning for a period of two to three weeks throughout the first month of the semester. Some even delayed the beginning of the semester for a week or two.
