HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Northern Kentucky University will resume many in-person classes when its fall semester starts on Aug. 17.
The 2020-’21 school year still will not be a return to normal, university president Ashish Vaidya wrote in a Monday afternoon letter to faculty, staff and students.
Everyone on campus will be required to screen themselves for symptoms each day, wear masks and observe social distancing until the CDC or Kentucky Health Department advise against it. Furniture in all campus buildings will be rearranged to space sitters further apart.
When those classes begin, most will involve both in-person and remote learning — sometimes at the same time via live lesson broadcasts.
Small in-person classes will meet in larger-than-normal classrooms to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, and large classes may either be shrunk or relocated to the largest lecture spaces on campus.
All will move online after Thanksgiving break, and students will complete their final exams remotely.
Vaidya acknowledged in his letter that students would be returning to school at an unusual time. COVID-19 changed the shape of American life in 2020, but so have nationwide protests against police brutality and the renaissance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“As a steward of place, we are working hard to build our organizational capacity for a more equitable, inclusive, and just society,” Vaidya wrote. “It is in these challenging times that we must serve as a beacon of hope and set an example through our leadership.”
