Citing outbreaks of COVID-19 among their student population, Arizona State University will not be conducting in-person learning for the rest of the calendar year once they head home for Thanksgiving break.
In a Friday announcement, ASU said they would shift their semester timelines to align with the fall break.
The university will move up its “Session C” week to end on Friday, Dec. 4. Final exams, originally scheduled for the week of Dec. 7, instead will happen the week of Nov. 30.
The school will not be sending students home, rather it will operate in a higher state of security and enforcement in its housing than what it had when the school year began in August.
The university announced a total of 1,753 positive tests as of last Thursday between staff and students. That’s from 57,629 tests administered since Aug. 1. More than 1,400 students were medically cleared for release.
“In short, it is our expectation that COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon and that we must find a way to operate the university in a way that accounts for the ongoing presence of the virus,” the school said in a statement.
They announced their in-person hybrid learning would return in the spring semester.
“As always, we will continue to monitor the situation with COVID-19 and make adjustments to our operations as needed,” ASU Executive Vice President Mark Searle said. “All faculty, staff and students are required to continue to comply with public health requirements.”
According to their admissions page, their standard costs for on-campus housing can be as much as $9,872 per year.
Last week, the University of Arizona asked students on-or-near campus to quarantine for two weeks to stave off the spread of COVID-19. The school reports they’ve seen 1,319 positive tests in the ten days ending Sept. 18. Since Aug. 4, the school has seen 2,030 total positive tests.
