The fall term at the University of Michigan will open Aug. 31 with a mix of remote learning and in-person classes at the Ann Arbor campus, the school announced Monday in its latest response to the coronavirus.
Residence halls will be open, but there will be an emphasis on boxed meals and fewer people in dining rooms.
The pandemic has been “substantially contained” in Michigan and other parts of the U.S., although the potential for new infections will continue until a vaccine or drug regimen is developed, said President Mark Schlissel, who is also a medical doctor.
Large classes will be held online, small classes will meet in-person and other classes will be a mix of both.
“Some students will choose or need to take all their classes remotely, and we’ll provide a robust set of fully remote classes that will enable most students to make that choice,” Schlissel said.
There will be no in-person classes after Thanksgiving. Instruction and final exams from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18 will be conducted remotely. The winter term will start on Jan. 19.
“We’ll provide more details in the coming weeks. ... There are few, if any, one-size-fits-all solutions at a university with our scale and breadth under such unusual circumstances,” Schlissel said.
The university had more than 31,000 undergraduate students and nearly 17,000 graduate students in fall 2019.
