Carnegie Mellon delays spring semester to avoid flu season during pandemic

Carnegie Mellon University officials Thursday said they will delay the start of the 2021 spring semester, originally scheduled to begin Jan. 11, to Feb. 1.

The new start date is an attempt to reduce the time the campus will be open during flu season, given indications that flu season will now overlap with the coronavirus pandemic, CMU Provost Jim Garrity said.

“We currently intend to offer spring semester classes in the hybrid-learning approach similar to the fall semester (i.e., remote only, in-person plus remote and in-person only), which allows flexibility in the way students choose to pursue their CMU education,” Garrity said in an email to the university community.

CMU, which typically houses about 4,000 students on campus, has about a quarter of that number in residence halls this semester. Like other colleges and universities offering a variety of learning options, the private school in Oakland limited on-campus housing in an attempt to allow for social distancing and reduce the potential for the spread of covid-19.

While CMU is the first school to chart changes in its spring semester in light of the global pandemic, a number of schools in the region, including the University of Pittsburgh, previously opted for an early start to their fall semesters with the goal of shuttering campuses after Thanksgiving.

CMU’s decision to rely on a hybrid learning approach again next spring follows recent announcements from Penn State, Purdue and the universities of Connecticut and Texas at San Antonio that they also plan a variety of online and in-person options this spring.

Penn State officials on Tuesday reported 343 students have tested positive for the virus at its University Park campus since Aug. 28. Additional numbers for tests over the Labor Day holiday weekend should be available soon, school officials said.

“We continue to be concerned with the numbers, and we will continue to assess our status this week as the results from tests administered later in the weekend are returned. We know our community is anxious, but these data are just some of the many variables we consider every day in determining our next steps,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a statement announcing the latest numbers.

Meanwhile, officials at West Virginia University on Wednesday moved all classes at the Morgantown campus online through Sept. 25, following an increase in covid-19 cases among students there.