University Of Minnesota Officials To Discuss Delaying Spring Break Due To COVID Concerns
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- University of Minnesota officials are considering pushing back 2021's spring break due to COVID-19 concerns.
Rachel T.A. Croson, the university's executive vice president and provost, informed faculty and staff Thursday about preparations for the spring semester.
In the memo, Croson discusses the possibility of pushing spring break -- which is typically in mid-March -- to either early or mid-April.
"As with Thanksgiving this fall, we have concerns about students traveling away from campus over spring break and then returning to campus," Croson wrote. "The current proposal being developed moves Spring Break into April (either April 5-9 or April 12-16)."
She says the proposal, which will be discussed in the next Board of Regents meeting in early October, would shift the week-long break to sync up with Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools' spring breaks.
Officials would then decide, based on the current developments in the pandemic, whether to continue in-person classes or go into full distance-learning mode for the rest of the semester.
The university is set to ease restrictions on students Friday after the first 10 days of the fall semester. Students were only being allowed to leave their on-campus housing to attend classes, get food and go to their jobs. For the next two weeks, students will have fewer restrictions, but will have to adhere to a 9 p.m. curfew.