ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – With the number of COVID-19 cases dropping in York County and vaccines becoming more available, Winthrop University plans to return to a more traditional fall semester in August.
In a Feb. 26 campus-wide e-mail, Interim President George Hynd said he is confident that the university will be able to start the fall semester with traditional in-person learning and extracurricular offerings. “We have been purposeful in structuring the fall academic offerings to be more aligned with normal semesters, with our goal being upward of 80 percent of our courses to be taught in the in-person and hybrid modalities,” Hynd said.
On the residential side, the university will likely shift back to the campus residency requirement for first- and second-year students. Waivers were provided for students who chose not to live on campus during the 2020-21 academic year.
Hynd said forecasts are that the vaccine will be widely available by July, which would create the environment that, along with the university’s continued campus protocols, make a more normal fall semester within reach. “That said, we cannot yet predict how many students or community members will be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester, nor what impact, if any, variant strains of the virus may have,” the interim president said. “We will continue to monitor the latter, in particular, as well as infection rates across the state, with the option of pivoting back to online learning in the fall if warranted.”
Winthrop has made the health and safety of the campus community its top priority, and that will not change. “We will continue to adjust our plans as needed, and I am confident if we all keep doing the right things, then we can pivot to a more normal, on-campus Winthrop experience in the fall,” Hynd said.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu or by calling 803/984-0586.
