VT to resume fall classes Aug. 24 on-campus, shift to online after Thanksgiving break

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WSET) -- On Monday, June 8, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands sent out an email to students, parents and faculty outlining plans for the 2020 fall semester.

He announced that instruction on campus will start on Aug. 24 and the semester will conclude on Dec. 16, as originally scheduled.

"Today we are sharing our plan for Blacksburg, where we will blend in-person and online teaching and learning in a manner that preserves valuable on-campus experiences and engagement while also reducing the potential for exposure to the coronavirus for those who are most vulnerable," he said.

They also plan to pivot to online instruction and exams after Thanksgiving break. University leaders said this is a move to reduce the spread of germs of students traveling home and back.

Sands also said that although the plans will continue to evolve over the summer, significant elements are firm, and it is now time for our students, faculty, and staff to shift from planning to preparation.

Some of those elements include reduced capacity in dining, lecture and residence halls.

Lecture halls will have students spread out, with no more than 50 people in the room. Virginia Tech said they are putting up Plexiglass barriers to separate dining hall staff from the students-, and they'll allow fewer students-in to eat at a time.

In dorms the University said they plan to spread out as many students they can, into their own rooms. This includes moving 3-thousand students to off campus housing.

Mark Owczarski with University Relations says students said student who don't feel comfortable coming back on campus, can take all their classes online.

School officials will hold a variety of town halls in the summer to continue to seek further input and to keep you apprised of developments.

"Our holistic, principles-based approach means that much of our planning for Blacksburg will pertain to all Virginia Tech locations. However, conditions in other regions of Virginia warrant distinct plans for each location. For example, the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will phase in clinics and in-person instruction over the summer months. As these site-specific plans become available, they will be shared internally through list-servs, the Virginia Tech Daily Email, and online on our expanded COVID-19 site," he said.

He says that the faculty, teaching assistants, and instructional designers are actively planning for a fall semester that utilizes a combination of in-person and online teaching.

"While we are hopeful for vaccines and effective treatments that reduce serious symptoms and mortality, we cannot count on those solutions in the near term. It is reasonable to assume that we will be living with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, and during this time we must rely on each other. We will learn together how to live well and work effectively as we take the precautions necessary to mitigate the health risks for our community."

"Our primary objective is to care for those who are most vulnerable from serious disease. As with other diseases and hazards that we live with every day, we won’t be perfect, but we can attempt to minimize the risk so that the mission of Virginia Tech — preparing the next generation to lead, generating new knowledge and applying that knowledge in the communities we serve — can continue as it has for nearly 150 years. We will emerge stronger as a university and as a community."