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University of Colorado, Boulder Preps In-Person Spring Term

Administrators are working to eliminate the uncertainty that COVID-19 brought in 2020 and focus more on the social effects of the pandemic as students and staff return to campus for the spring term.

Three college students wearing masks.
College students Colin Berg, from left, Connor Dreher and Brady Bowman stroll through downtown Boulder, Colorado, in mid-November wearing matching neck gaiters. Some research suggests the thin material used in gaiters does not block as much of the coronavirus as cloth face masks do, even when worn correctly, doubled over and covering the nose and mouth. (Markian Hawryluk/KHN)
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Students at the University of Colorado Boulder began the spring semester yesterday the way they ended the fall semester: online. But that will change Feb. 14, when the students will be welcomed back to campus for in-person learning. 

The university decided to begin the semester online and set the Feb. 14 date with the purpose of eliminating any uncertainty about what the semester would look like. It was one of the main lessons learned from the fall semester that school administrators have incorporated into their strategy for having a less chaotic second half of the school year.  

The main two lessons administrators are focusing on are eliminating the uncertainty and focus more on the social aspects and effects of the pandemic. A stronger relationship with local health organizations and partners is also a reason they hope the semester will be conducted relatively uninterrupted.  

The university had the highest outbreak of COVID-19 in the state during the fall semester and shifted between in-person and online learning and a hybrid model.  

“We learned a couple of [lessons] that are important,” said Pat O’Rourke, the university’s interim chief operating officer. “One of the hardest things for our student community as well as faculty and staff was uncertainty and being shifted from different instructional statuses and different expectations,” he said.

“One of the reasons that we delayed the start of spring semester for in-person instruction was to allow things to stabilize within the community so we could be in a situation where we’ll have more certainty around expectations.” 

Another key lesson was that during the fall, a lot of attention was paid to the physical state of the campus — with heavy investment in filtration units for the classrooms and PPE — and those helped greatly and will continue to be a part of the equation. But administrators will attach more focus this semester to the social aspects of mitigating the pandemic while still trying to allow students to continue with family and other relationships and enjoy the college experience. 

“We did learn a lot about the importance of the social factors for our students, faculty and staff, so in terms of lessons learned, I know we invested in more housing and dining and personnel to provide more dining options and doing so in a safe way,” said Russ Moore, a professor and university provost.  

The university has encouraged students, faculty and staff, as well as the families of those individuals, to take advantage of the university’s COVID-19 testing. 

The school also learned the importance of building alliances with local public health agencies and the city and the county.

“We know that we’re going to be tying our activities to the state’s COVID dial, and that’s been very important to us as we’ve been planning,” O’Rourke said. “We’re going to continue to look at what other colleges and universities are doing and continue close coordination with our colleagues with the city of Boulder, Boulder County Health and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.”