Many colleges hope that an extra week or two will get them past the peak of the nationwide spike driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Still, the surge is casting uncertainty over a semester many had hoped would be the closest to normal since the start of the pandemic.
“I’m a junior, but about half my schooling experience has been online,” said Maynard, 20, of Ellicott City, Maryland. “You lose so much of what makes the school the school.” As for the mid-January target date for resuming in-person learning, Goldman said officials “recognize there’s some possibility that it won’t be possible.”
It’s the first time since last spring that the school has moved fully remote, but Chancellor Kim Wilcox said it is the best way to prevent the virus from spreading after students return from holiday travel. At Northeastern University in Boston, one of a growing number of schools requiring boosters, students are returning as planned. Officials said the school is shifting its focus from preventing all cases to warding off serious illness or hospitalization.