In a Monday email to the College community, Holy Cross President Fr. David Tyson announced plans for reopening campus for the fall semester. The semester will begin the week of August 10 and have no fall break in order to end prior to Thanksgiving.
Following consultation with experts including public health officials and contagious disease specialists, the College began creating a plan to safely return to campus for the fall semester.
“For us to safely open for the fall semester we must be prepared to prevent the spread of the virus by identifying those returning students who are infected with the virus,” Tyson said in the email. “We will need to implement a comprehensive testing protocol, a capacity to isolate those who present positive test results as well as provide a quarantine for students who have been in contact with them.”
Tyson said the College plans to develop additional safety measures, including protocols for faculty and staff. A handbook of the protocols will be created and made available to the Holy Cross community.
“Presently, all classes are scheduled to be conducted in a synchronous environment with students and professors present to one another,” Tyson said. “However, if in the event that a new outbreak should occur, we need to be prepared to adapt to these circumstances.”
These adaptations could come in the form of continuing remote learning if students are kept home at the beginning of the semester or sent home once the semester has begun.
“Though it is an ominous challenge, we believe that we can meet it with the cooperation and collaboration of all of us in the Holy Cross community,” Tyson said.
