Brown University delays start of in-person classes

PROVIDENCE - Brown University is delaying the start in-person classes until at least October.

Citing the growing number of COVID-19 cases, Brown will permit only a limited number of students to return to campus in late August, while most undergraduates will study remotely.

Classes will be taught remotely from Sept. 9, the first day of fall term, until the week of Oct. 5.

If COVID-19 cases in Rhode Island have declined from their current level over a 14-day period and the number of students who test positive for COVID-19 is sufficiently low, Brown will invite returning undergraduates back to campus in late September and begin in-person instruction for small undergraduate courses on Oct. 5.

If by Sept. 11 the public health situation has not improved, the remainder of the semester will be remote.

President Christina H. Paxson outlined the modified fall semester plan in an Aug. 11 letter to the campus community, five weeks after the university’s initial 2020-21 plan emphasized flexibility.

“Given the current landscape, in consultation with public health experts we have determined it best to take a phased approach to the start of in-person instruction for the fall semester,” Paxson wrote. “This staggered arrival of students over a longer time period will better position Brown to address challenges, including quarantine and isolation for any students who test positive for COVID-19. This plan also is in keeping with the data-based and public health-based decision making that has driven our planning since the beginning of the pandemic.”

While staff at Brown have prepared extensively to support the health and safety of students — setting up an on-campus COVID-19 testing site, training contact tracers, investing in improved air filtration systems, and purchasing additional cleaning supplies — Brown’s quarantine and isolation capacity could be stressed if a large number of returning students simultaneously test positive for COVID-19. Paxson wrote.

“While safety, always, is our top priority, let me say how sorry I am to be writing this letter,” Paxson wrote. “I know how eager many of our undergraduates are to return to campus, see their friends and take classes in person, and I understand that a delay of even a few weeks is difficult. Please be assured that Brown faculty and staff have worked tirelessly over the last several months to do all that is needed to safely bring students back to campus, but we must confront the reality that bringing students back in smaller numbers is the safer course.”

Brown’s phased approach to bringing students back to campus will not affect graduate and medical students, many of whom are already in Providence or will return to campus before Labor Day, in most cases with opportunities for in-person learning.

The adjustment will not impact the university’s three-term academic calendar for 2020-21. First-year undergraduates will still arrive for the spring term and continue into the summer term.

If Brown on Sept. 11 determines that resuming in-person instruction is feasible by Oct. 5, undergraduates planning to come to campus will be invited to move into their dorms during the week of Sept. 21.

Until then, undergraduates in certain situations can apply for permission to return to dorms in late August . This includes students who live in unsafe environments, whose living circumstances make remote study difficult or who have previous plans for research that can only be done on campus, as well as international students who cannot travel home, and students with exceptional circumstances.

Every student approved to be on campus regularly, regardless of when they arrive and whether they will live on or off campus in the Providence area, will be required to commit to a detailed set of health and safety practices during the year. Those include participating in Brown’s routine COVID-19 asymptomatic testing program and following measures to prevent virus spread, including mask wearing, social distancing and increased hand washing .

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