UMass Boston announces plan to teach classes remotely this fall
"Even a cursory examination of public behavior makes it clear that many are resistant to the very practices that will help keep us all safe."
Due to coronavirus concerns, in-person classes will not be back in session this fall at the third largest state university in Massachusetts.
Katherine Newman, the interim chancellor of UMass Boston, announced Monday that the university will move forward with plans to maintain remote learning through the upcoming semester, with the exception of certain science and nursing programs that require the use of campus labs.
“The rest of the curriculum will be delivered to you via remote instruction,” Newman said.
Interim Chancellor Katherine Newman has announced that UMass Boston will continue its remote teaching and learning platform for the fall semester. The decision was taken out of respect for the health and well-being of students, faculty, staff, & community: https://t.co/xLkqwCxkEo pic.twitter.com/bQcrhL4zwB
— UMass Boston (@UMassBoston) June 22, 2020
The decision — made “out of respect for the health and well-being” of the UMass Boston community — comes as other Massachusetts state universities plan a “blended” model of both in-person and remote learning for the upcoming semester. Other members of the UMass system are still working on plans for the fall. But even the flagship Amherst campus anticipates that “some or all” classes will be remotely conducted
Newman, who will be replaced as chancellor by Marcelo Suarez-Orozco this summer, promised a “vibrant and engaging semester,” but acknowledged concerns from students that a semester of remote learning may not be as fulfilling.
“They worry about maintaining motivation when they are alone or have to study in places that their families need for daily activities,” Newman wrote. “The quiet of the campus library, the atmosphere of academic engagement, really matters and they are longing to have it back. Some are convinced that campus safety can be preserved by social distancing or medical testing.”
However, located in a major city with a student population largely made up of local commuters, UMass Boston is unlike other colleges where students live in a more removed setting; Newman said that the 16,000-student school’s “physical location and transportation patterns, as well as its relationship to the surrounding, large urban area, make it difficult to execute and enforce” social distancing and other safety precautions aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
Additionally, she noted that many students and staff members commute from communities that have been the hardest hit by the pandemic; the Columbia Point campus itself is located in one of the neighborhoods with the highest rate of positive COVID-19 tests in Boston.
“While we appreciate the good intentions of those who feel they can abide by wearing masks or social distancing, even a cursory examination of public behavior makes it clear that many are resistant to the very practices that will help keep us all safe,” Newman wrote.
“Comprehensive weekly testing of a large urban population of commuting students, faculty and staff, isolating those who are infected from their fellow students, colleagues and family members, and quarantining at scale would be very hard for our campus,” she continued. “Opinions vary on how necessary it is to invoke such a strict standard for a largely commuter campus, but we feel that our community deserves a significant degree of caution given the many unknowns about this virus.”
Newman said UMass Boston was in the midst of reworking course plans to make remote classes engaging. The school is also encouraging students to continue to participate in clubs and student activities online, including wellness “clinics” and potentially even e-sports or other electronic games.
In a memo earlier this month, Newman said the plan will not permit any fall sports.
Depending on how the pandemic unfolds, Newman said they could “bring some limited student activities back to Columbia Point in the middle of the fall term.” According to UMass Boston’s preliminary fall plan, school officials expect they may be able to provide on-campus housing to a small fraction to students, with priority given to those “whose families live too far away for commuting to be feasible and those who lack housing.”
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