Notre Dame has announced plans to open for the 2020 fall semester with a revised academic calendar.
The university will welcome students back on campus Aug. 10, two weeks earlier than scheduled, President Fr. John Jenkins said Monday. There will not be a fall break and the semester will end before Thanksgiving. Additionally, the rest of the summer academic programs were canceled.
“By far the most complex challenge before us is the return of our students to campus for the resumption of classes in the fall semester,” Jenkins said in a letter to students and parents. “Bringing our students back is in effect assembling a small city of people from many parts of the nation and the world, who may bring with them pathogens to which they have been exposed. We recognize the challenge, but we believe it is one we can meet.”
Without campus open for the fall, playing a football season would have become extremely difficult if not unlikely. The announcement of an opening was an important step in playing football this fall.
Head coach Brian Kelly and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick have said the players will need about six to eight weeks of conditioning work and practices to safely prepare for a season. Even with campus closed until August, it's possible the football team could reconvene on campus earlier to being practice.
"Fall sports teams collecting for purposes of preparing may in fact happen before schools are fully open in a number of places,” Swarbrick said on a May 5 Zoom call with reporters.
Jenkins, in his letter, added summer work and programs could continue for “a small number of students whose summer work is preparatory for the fall semester.”
Notre Dame professors will make their classes in-person and remote classes in the fall, so students in isolation can participate and a transition to online-only learning can be smooth if the on-campus activities are forced to stop due to another outbreak.
The reopening plan includes safety and campus health protocols. It will feature “comprehensive testing for COVID-19, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation protocols, social distancing and mask requirements, and enhanced cleaning of all campus spaces,” the university’s release said.
The university said it has also identified spaces to use to isolate students who test positive and quarantine those who come in close contact with a student or other community member who tests positive. Testing, contact tracing and quarantining will continue as long as necessary.
“As we adapt to the new normal brought on by the coronavirus, we will do everything we can to provide you with a safe learning, research and working environment,” Father Jenkins wrote in his letter.
Professors have also been asked to “prepare fall courses with two distinct periods of equal length” to allow for an easier switch to remote learning if one is needed.
Notre Dame sent students home in mid-March, about halfway through the spring semester, when the COVID-19 outbreak first occurred.
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