Eastern Michigan University recently announced on April 7 that they are planning for the Fall 2021 semester to have a ‘more traditional’ campus experience for students and faculty.
The announcement states that the University is making plans for safe on-campus experiences that concern student organizations, housing, athletics, and other aspects of campus life.
Geoffry Larcom, the Executive Director of Media Relations at EMU, says that to the degree dictated by science and the way the pandemic plays out has helped EMU lead to the decision to plan for a more traditional campus experience next semester. EMUs planning focuses highly on implementing certain plans for this upcoming semester that they believe will greatly help students achieve their educational goals.
“For many students, particularly those in their first or second year a more traditional in-person on-campus experience provides the greatest opportunity for a successful start to achieving that degree. So to the degree we can we’re interested in doing that,” Larcom said.
Depending on the state of the pandemic, some aspects of current changes to EMU might still be present in the upcoming Fall semester, such as social distancing and the daily Covid pass students, faculty, and visitors on campus must take before going into any buildings on campus.
Larcom says that the University will be looking towards the progression of the pandemic and science to dictate how many of these current changes will still be implemented in the upcoming semester.
By the time the Fall 2021 semester begins, Larcom hopes that students will be able to get as vivid of an experience as they can and have the chance to interact with other students, be able to join in extracurricular activities, and experience the vibrancy that the campus offers to students and faculty.
Samantha Clipper, a freshman living on campus, says that after hearing EMUs plans to open with a more traditional campus was both exciting and nervous for her. Clipper hopes that with the distribution of vaccines that things may be in favor of campus being more traditional next semester, but that she is keeping in mind concerns of where the pandemic may be in the future.
“As long as they do it safely it’s a great thing. I know in the emails we kind of take pride in the fact that we’ve had the lowest amount of cases compared to the other campuses in Michigan and I think that’s because we do offer free testing and that. So I think as long as they keep up all of that and they don’t let the restrictions go too loose I think that we actually have a shot at a more traditional semester safely,” Clipper said.
You can read more of the University’s public response in their EMU Today article.
