Colleges in US go back to online classes amid COVID spike

More than 70 colleges across 26 states in the US are starting the term online.

TT,  02 Jan 2022: Dozens of US colleges are back to holding online classes as the winter break ends amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

• Colleges hope that an extra week or two will get them past the peak of the nationwide surge
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• Some fear the latest shift to online mode could extend well beyond a week or two 

Harvard University is moving classes online for the first three weeks of the new year, with a return to campus scheduled for late January, conditions permitting.

The University of Chicago is delaying the beginning of its new term and holding online classes in the first two weeks. Some others like Michigan State University are inviting students back to campus but starting classes online.

Colleges hope that an extra week or two will get them past the peak of the nationwide spike driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Still, the surge is casting uncertainty over a semester many had hoped would be the closest to normal since the start of the pandemic.

For some students, starting the term remotely is becoming routine as many colleges used the strategy last year amid a wave of cases. But some fear the latest shift could extend well beyond a week or two.

Jake Maynard, a student at George Washington University in the nation's capital, said he is fine with a week of online classes, but beyond that, he hopes officials trust in the booster shots and provide a traditional college experience.

He has already taken a year of online learning, which he said did not work and wasn't what he expected from a school that charges more than 50,000 dollars a year.

“I'm a junior, but about half my schooling experience has been online,” said Maynard, 20, of Ellicott City, Maryland.

The university is inviting students back to campus starting Monday, but classes will be held online until Jan. 18 as officials ramp up virus testing and isolate any infected students. The school has more than doubled its isolation space and moved up the deadline for a new booster shot requirement by three weeks because of omicron.

So far, more than 70 colleges across 26 states are starting the term online and others say they are considering it. Many making the move now use quarter systems that start earlier than those with semesters.

“The Omicron variant hit us at a terrible time, basically the last couple weeks of the fall semester, which doesn't give us much time to prepare for spring,” said Lynn Goldman, dean of George Washington's school of public health.

As for the mid-January target date for resuming in-person learning, Goldman said officials “recognise there's some possibility that it won't be possible”.

Some other colleges are delaying the new term without offering remote classes. Syracuse University pushed its semester back a week.

Others are pressing ahead with in-person learning, saying the health risks are low with masks and booster shots. At Northeastern University in Boston, one of a growing number of schools requiring boosters, students are returning as planned. Officials said the school is shifting its focus from preventing all cases to warding off serious illness or hospitalisation.

The University of Florida plans to return to in-person learning at the start of the semester, despite a request from a faculty union to teach remotely for the first three weeks.

The 50,000-student campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign plans to resume in-person classes after a week of online instruction. Students are being encouraged to return during that first week so they can take two virus tests, which will clear them to resume in-person activities if they test negative.