UMass Amherst is preparing to welcome some students back on campus this spring even as coronavirus cases are currently on the rise across the commonwealth.
First-year students and entering transfer students, those enrolled in mandatory face-to-face classes, students dependent on university housing and dining and those involved in athletics will be given the option to live on campus for the spring 2021 semester currently scheduled to begin Feb. 1, the university announced Friday. Those groups comprise about 60% of the university’s typical on-campus residential population.
“While I am pleased that a larger percentage of our students will be afforded the opportunity to return to campus and take part in the immersive residential experience, my heart goes out to students to whom we are not able to extend this invitation,” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy wrote in a message to the school community on Friday.
“Put simply, given the nature of the pandemic, the campus cannot operate at full capacity and adequately provide the virus testing, contact tracing, social distancing, and quarantine and isolation measures necessary while the pandemic continues,” Subbaswamy said.
Subbaswamy’s announcement is a break from the fall, when the flagship UMass campus allowed only students taking “essential face-to-face classes” to live on campus.
Subbaswamy said the university’s “confidence is bolstered” in bringing students back in the spring in part due to its virus testing and contact tracing programs, which he called the “fourth-largest” in the state behind Boston, Worcester and Cambridge. UMass Amherst has administered 103,000 tests for a cumulative positivity rate of 0.15%, “well below most peer institutions as well as the state,” Subbaswamy said.
In order to return to living on campus or off-campus in the Amherst area, students will have to undergo twice-weekly coronavirus testing, keep to “strict” social distancing and wear face coverings outside their personal residences. Students will also be asked to form “pods” to limit in-person interactions and will not be allowed to have guests in any campus building.
The university also pledged to keep working with the town on safety measures. Amherst was listed as “yellow” for having moderate risk for coronavirus transmission in this week’s Department of Public Health report, which saw a record 77 cities and towns land in the “red zone” for high risk.
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October 24, 2020 at 07:11AM
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UMass Amherst to bring some students back to campus in spring amid coronavirus - Boston Herald
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