The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will start the fall semester one week earlier and where it ended the spring semester — online — before convening on-campus instruction a week later.
Students will begin the 2020-21 school year with remote learning on Aug. 17 before starting face-to-face classes on Aug. 24, Chancellor Ronnie Green wrote to students, faculty and staff in an email Friday.
Classes will meet on Labor Day, which traditionally has been a day off, and UNL will work through its fall break in mid-October before wrapping up the semester with finals week, allowing students to depart campus the day before Thanksgiving.
“Shifting and compressing the fall schedule will help to reduce travel that can result in increased spread of COVID-19,†Green said. “It will also give us greater flexibility should there be a resurgence of infections later in the fall.â€
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Colleges and universities across the country, including several in Nebraska, have adopted the earlier and shorter schedule ahead of a projected second wave of the coronavirus later this year.
Other NU campuses in Omaha and Kearney will keep their Aug. 24 start date but give classes the option of switching to remote learning after the traditional Thanksgiving break for the remainder of the semester, which runs into December.
After the coronavirus cut short the on-campus experience for students this spring, Amy Goodburn, UNL’s senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education, said students are hungry for a return to some sense of normalcy.
“The students I talk with are craving that in-person instruction,†said Goodburn, who is also a co-chair of UNL’s task force examining the processes for reopening this fall. “They really want to be back with their peers and their instructors for in-person instruction for the fall.â€
One of those students, Mario Sanchez, said he was thrown off when his daily routine of traveling to campus, studying in the library between classes and seeking out the office hours of his professors was upended in an instant in March.
“I like structure. I’m a person that needs that university setting,†said Sanchez, who holed up in his Lincoln apartment while the coronavirus spread quickly through his hometown of Grand Island, including among several members of his family’s church.
The absence of a university setting gave Sanchez a new appreciation for face-to-face learning, he said, and has him looking forward to finishing his degree in biological sciences this fall.
Sanchez said he’s prepared for a projected second wave of the coronavirus pandemic to potentially disrupt student life once more in the fall and believes other students are ready for that possibility, too.
“I’m going back regardless,†he said, “but at the same time, I know if we reach a situation that’s going to be similar to what we had in March, we’ll once again go to virtual learning.â€
Logan Gilchrist, a senior political science major from Rushville, said he's planning to return to UNL but is waiting for more information about what form classes will take.
Administrators have said instruction could be delivered through a blend of in-person and online methods.
"It seems like they are trying to toe the line between being fully online and back in person, and when you do something like that, you're getting the worst of both worlds," Gilchrist said.
If a decision is made early enough, giving instructors time to prepare, Gilchrist thinks the blended method could be successful.
Other colleges in Nebraska have also adopted earlier and compressed schedules this fall in preparation of college life during a pandemic.
Earlier in May, Creighton University said it would start and end its fall semester early, and on Tuesday, the Nebraska State College System, which operates campuses in Chadron, Peru and Wayne, announced it would start classes Aug. 17 and finish before Thanksgiving.
Nebraska Wesleyan University plans to start a week earlier than planned and end on-campus classes Nov. 25, before finishing the semester online with one week of classes and final exams.
Concordia University in Seward, which attracts many students from outside the state, said Thursday it plans to start its fall semester two weeks early — Aug. 10 — with an end date of Nov. 24.
Hastings College will keep to its Aug. 19 start date, spokesman Michael Howie said, as well as its planned fall semester schedule.
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Chris Dunker
Higher education/statehouse reporter
