As Covid-19 Surges, Colleges Make Last-Minute Changes to Spring Calendars

“It has become increasingly clear that the next several weeks will likely be among the most difficult our country and Central New York will experience since the onset of the pandemic,” said Chancellor Kent Syverud.

New York’s governor said Monday that officials had identified a case of a more contagious strain of Covid-19, first found in the U.K., in another part of the state.

Mr. Syverud said that by starting classes on Feb. 8, Syracuse could create some distance between an expected postholiday surge of cases and the return of students. He said a delayed start would also increase the possibility that some campus front-line workers, such as health center staff, would be vaccinated by the time students arrive.

Colleges and universities across the country scrambled last summer to create, then re-create, opening plans for the fall term. That left families struggling to coordinate travel or abide by state quarantine orders; plans sometimes changed days or weeks after tuition payments came due. Now some schools’ spring-semester intentions are unraveling.

Since mid-December, the University of Colorado Boulder, Old Dominion University and more than a dozen other schools have updated their academic calendars or planned mode of instruction in light of the continuing health crisis.

Mississippi State University delayed its spring term by five days, to Jan. 11, acknowledging that some students may not have stayed isolated during the holiday break.

“We know that with New Year’s Eve celebrations there is the possibility of additional exposures and infections; this delay will allow time for infections to run their course prior to students’ return to campus,” said executive vice president and provost David R. Shaw.

Last month, Pennsylvania’s education and health departments urged colleges and universities to opt for virtual instruction “to the maximum extent feasible” and to delay students’ campus return. They said at the time that the number of new daily cases in Pennsylvania was approximately 10 times higher than in September, and hospitalizations were more than double last spring’s levels. They expected a peak in January or February.

Pennsylvania State University will begin classes remotely on Jan. 19, and then resume in-person offerings on Feb. 15.

Robert Morris University, near Pittsburgh, delayed most classes by five days, until Jan. 19. It is offering classes both online and in person, but won’t begin in-person instruction until Jan. 25. The school eliminated its spring break to accommodate the later start.

Leaders of Massachusetts colleges, universities and boarding schools received a message from the commonwealth’s secretaries of education and health and human services on Christmas Eve, urging them not to bring students back until at least Jan. 18.

Emerson College in Boston will still begin classes on Jan. 19 as scheduled, just online. Student move-in will be pushed back by a week, and classes will start in person on Feb. 1.

Emerson draws many students from California, where major hospitals are at capacity and the virus rages despite lockdown orders. President Lee Pelton, who met with his core virus-response team multiple times in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, said it seemed prudent to open online only, and then keep students’ movement to a minimum after their arrival.

In the fall, Emerson restricted access to campus and tested students at least once a week. Its cumulative positivity rate since August is 0.12%.

“It’s disruptive to parents and families who’ve made transportation arrangements,” Dr. Pelton said of the late calendar adjustment. He can’t guarantee that it will be the last, as epidemiological models continue to evolve. “We’re going to be very attentive to the changing landscape of the virus,” he said.

Write to Melissa Korn at [email protected]