Bishop John Carroll statue in front of Healy Hall, Georgetown University
Photo by Stephan Mease (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
According to the July 7 journal Inside Higher Education, the University of Southern California, Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, and Georgetown have announced that fall classes will be held primarily online, with a reduced number of students invited to be on campus. In related news, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that immigrant students will not be able to stay in the States and take all online courses; if their semester is totally online, they’ll have to go home.
Georgetown University will bring approximately 2,000 undergraduates to the D.C. campus, freshmen and those who have difficulty working from home. Georgetown promises single rooms for those who live on campus. Rutgers this fall will provide remote instruction, with in-person classes reserved for courses in the arts, lab or field work, and clinical instruction.
Harvard will bring to campus freshmen and seniors, but classes for the college of arts and sciences will be held exclusively online for both semesters. Princeton will allow freshmen and juniors to return to campus in the fall, sophomores and seniors in the spring.
Some colleges that plan to bring students onto campus this fall have adjusted their calendars, starting earlier in August, eliminating mid-semester breaks, and ending instruction at Thanksgiving break, with exams held remotely. To facilitate social distancing, some are adjusting class times as well to lessen the number of students walking from class to class at one time.