MADISON, Wis. — As more people in Wisconsin become vaccinated from COVID-19 and gathering restrictions are gradually loosened, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says she anticipates the fall semester will be similar to pre-pandemic life on campus.
“I feel confident that next semester will look more like Fall 2019 than Fall 2020, with offices occupied and throngs of students changing classes in the middle of the day. But it will be different than before – it’s a new normal, not our old normal,” the chancellor wrote in a blog post published Thursday.
Blank says nearly all of the courses that were offered in-person in the fall semester of 2019 will return to being in-person in the fall of 2021. There will still be a number of hybrid and online classes similar to what the university has offered in the past.
“Our students should plan to be in Madison in the fall,” Blank wrote. “Our dining facilities, academic and research resources will all be open and our residence halls will be fully occupied.”
As the university prepares to return to in-person classes and more students on campus, Blank says students will not be required to be vaccinated to attend, unlike some other Big Ten schools. On Thursday, Rutgers University announced it would require all students in the fall to be vaccinated.
Instead, Blank says UW-Madison will “strongly urge” all students and staff to get vaccinated during the spring and summer, and will offer vaccinations to anybody who arrives on campus in the fall that wants one. COVID testing will also remain available on campus next fall, although it will not be required for anyone who is fully vaccinated.
“At some level, I expect that the safety protocols of the past year will remain with us,” Blank said. “There will be those who want to remain masked; there may be some situations where group gathering sizes are limited.”
Blank says more specific health guidance for the fall semester will depend on the decline of COVID cases and public health recommendations at that time.
“Of course, things may look slightly different than they did before the pandemic – that’s the new normal,” Blank said. “With your help, we can fully return to campus this fall and reestablish the large, interactive, sometimes noisy and always exciting community that is UW–Madison.”
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