Classes are planned to officially start on January 21, with two days of online delivery. The following Monday, Jan. 25, in person classes will start.
Face-to-face classes will continue for ten weeks followed by a short spring break from March 31 to April 4. The semester will conclude with five weeks of online class, until the final day of class on May 6.
Finals week is planned to be May 10-14.
Colton Haas, a senior in Political Science, said, “I think it’s hypocritical for them to have in person classes after they panicked at the end of the semester and cutting classes early because of ‘a spike in cases.’ Even if the university says it’s not true, it still looks like a ‘Biden won so the virus is gone’ type of attitude. If they actually stood by their cowardly approach to the virus they wouldn’t be having us go back to campus at all.”
Another student shared a similar reaction towards the plan.
“I kind think it is pointless the way they are setting it up,” said Will Howell, an agricultural business major. “They should just pick one or the other. I would rather just do in person because for me I’m not very good at online, mainly because last spring semester none of my teachers taught. All they said was read the book. That’s why I took a semester off.”
Alison Grendahl, an advisor for Student Success Services, said, “I don’t have an opinion in terms of classes, but I was pleased to see a mini spring break included in the final draft of the plan. I think students are really going to need that.”
According to UW, this is the best effort for an on-campus experience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The full news release can be found here.
According to the announcement, UW’s testing surveillance program will be continued next semester. COVID-19 will continue to be actively monitored on campus.
