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U of M to bring students back to campus this fall

The university released its plans for the upcoming fall semester.

ANN ARBOR, Mich — The University of Michigan announced Monday, June 22, that it does intend on bringing students back to campus for the fall semester. 

According to a message addressed to the campus community, plans will consist of a mixture of in-person and remote classes that are "structured to reflect our commitment to promoting public health while fulfilling our fundamental mission of transformative undergraduate, graduate and professional education," U of M President Mark Schlissel said.

"Thanks to the thoughtful and deliberate efforts of hundreds of members of the U-M community, our cautious optimism about the fall has coalesced into a path forward. Their work has given me confidence that we can do this safely, and we will continue to plan and prepare in the months ahead. We now have the opportunity to begin a new journey together, equipped with the very best guidance and ideas from our leading scholars, innovative students and expert staff."

U of M's Ann Arbor campus will also open its residence halls for housing and dining, and will resume a number of on-campus programs and activities. 

In order to conduct an in-person semester, the university will rely on basic public health strategies including social distancing, minimizing out-of-area travel, wearing face coverings, washing hands frequently, symptom screening, clinical testing, contact tracing and quarantine that add up to a highly effective way to limit spread of this illness. 

Classes will begin Aug. 31, 2020, as previously scheduled, but the school said fall break will be eliminated.

The last day of in-person classes for the semester will be Friday, Nov. 20. After a nine-day-long Thanksgiving break, classes will resume remotely on Monday, Nov. 30 and continue until Dec. 8., with finals running Dec. 10-18.

"We will protect our students, faculty and staff with a broad array of research-based public health measures and tools," Schlissel said in the announcement. "We will make full use of our longstanding excellence in teaching and learning, both in person and online, and tap our innovative spirit to deliver a world-class Michigan educational experience in these most unusual times. And we will ask all of you to join in prudent health and safety actions that will embody our commitment to caring for one another."

Find more information about the University of Michigan's plan to return to an in-person semester in the announcement and on their Maize and Blueprint website, which will be updated regularly as details are finalized. 

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