Finally someone is doing the smart thing. Notre Dame has announced that it will bring students back to campus the week of August 10, will cancel fall break, and will be done with the first semester before Thanksgiving.
Sounds like a sensible move.
They are following the model Purdue announced two weeks ago.
This means there is a very good chance no freshman international students will be able to attend if visas can’t be issued by June/ early July
I actually this is very smart…smarter than the colleges that are delaying classes until latter September…which then pushes classes into colder weather and (if this follows the path of seasonal flu) it’ll be worse.
The tough part is that we aren’t going to know what worked until years from now…but I will say that any public health masters candidate looking for thesis data topics will have dozens of scenarios to choose from!
How will this affect domestic as well as international transfer students?
This is a good idea. But I am wondering then all classes will be online for winter/spring term?
Why?
ND is scared that a second wave of COVID-19 may hit in December and is the reason why they pushed everything up before Thanksgiving.
Maybe.
It’s not just a matter of forecasting when a second wave will hit. It’s a matter of not wanting students to travel for Thanksgiving and come back again. Given a choice between finishing before Thanksgiving, and holding the student body captive over the holiday weekend, they’re choosing the former.
I believe some schools have talking about holding exams after the Thanksgiving break, but doing that testing remotely so that students can go home for Thanksgiving and finish from there. That seems sensible to me as well - better to prioritize actual teaching/learning time over in-person proctoring.
@jjwonn - my impression from the letter from Fr. Jenkins is that the travel is a concern. They want to limit the potential that a return home then back to school will introduce an opportunity to bring the virus back to campus. FYI, a second wave will likely begin as early as October, much like the flu. I expect there to be one, the big question is how will leaders, both government and academic, react.
If past is prologue to the future . . . Badly in the case of the former.
@Bill Marsh - I will leave that to those wiser than me. Politics are messy by design. I’m happy for my son that he will get to rejoin his tribe in the Fall. He misses his Hall and the community that it represents for him.
I agree on all points.
Fr. Jenkins: “We’re Reopening Notre Dame. It’s Worth the Risk.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/notre-dame-university-coronavirus.html
I am so proud of Notre Dame and Fr. Jenkins for their brave decision. We will be new to the ND community in August (in just a little over two months!!) and couldn’t be more excited.
I hope that whatever we learn from the fall can be applied to the spring semester so that the students and faculty can return to campus. I’m sure that’s their intention. Depending on who you listen to, there MIGHT be a vaccine by the end of the year (while others say no way). But I’m not sure they would prioritize 18-22 year olds for the vaccine, but it would at least alleviate some of the risk to society.
With or without a vaccine, let’s hope that any kind of of uptick in cases can be managed so that they don’t have to resort to extreme measures.
Will be curious to see the numbers of cases / hospitalizations / deaths caused by the protests. I assume the cases will increase (also by additional testing). However, if the hospital stays and deaths don’t rise at the same rate, that will show this virus is more manageable than we think / thought. And if that’s the case, I wonder if schools will use that information to move closer to normal.
Of course this is all hopeful, but I wouldn’t be too worried about crowds in a lecture hall or party or football stadium IF the serious cases don’t dramatically / and proportionately increase from the demonstrations.
@rickle1 those are great points and I am also anxious to see the fall out from the protests and just things becoming more open everywhere in general. Yes there will be more cases (probably due to more spreading but also more testing), but how dire the situation becomes will be telling.
Fall 2020 academic calendar published. https://here.nd.edu/academics/fall-2020-calendar/ Move in will be in stages starting August 3 (just noticed the calendar has “Tentative” on this item). No mention of a Welcome Weekend. Finals done by November 20th.