COLLEGE STATION, Texas —
Texas A&M University, like many other universities nationwide, is working hard to make sure students will be able to come back to campus this fall safely.
While the coronavirus has made planning for the future challenging, Provost and Executive Vice President Carol A. Fierke says Texas A&M is determined to “fulfill [their] land-grant mission of education, research and service to our state,” and hopes “with everyone’s support, we will do this as safely as possible”.
Tuesday evening, Fierke released some changes that will be taking place this fall semester. You can find a list of Texas A&M’s plans below.
Texas A&M will not extend classes to Saturday like originally planned. Instead, classes will still be held five days a week, but classes will be taught later into the day.
There will be a 30-minute “passing period” to allow students and instructors to completely clear the rooms before the next group enters.
Around noon each day, there will be one 45-minute passing period to allow cleaning of classrooms.
The days that instructors were scheduled to teach are not likely to change, but the class time might. Students won’t be required to re-register for their courses, but there will be open registration on Monday, July 27, just in case students want to make changes to their schedules following these new updates.
Room assignments will most likely change to accommodate social distancing. Rooms will be limited to approximately 33% to 40% of normal capacity.
Almost half of all classes will be available in a face-to-face format, but all face-to-face classes will also be offered remotely. The other half of classes will be offered only remotely or online.
Fierke expressed that many more safety measures are in progress and in consideration, and that more details would be finalized through the summer, with more information scheduled to be announced June 29.