Duke will only allow freshmen and sophomores in campus housing for the fall semester
As universities nationwide struggle with reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, Duke University will limit the use of campus housing to first- and second year students, and students who have specific personal or academic needs for on-campus housing, the school announced Sunday.
Upperclassmen who had planned to live on campus “will have the option of participating in the same Duke-quality remote-learning experience that will be available to all students who are not able to come to campus or live in the Durham area this fall, and will have first priority for campus housing in the spring,” President Vincent Price wrote in an email announcing the arrangement.
Students will be able to apply for special-needs housing beginning at noon Monday at http://keeplearning.duke.edu./.
“Our plans for the spring semester remain tentative and will be based on the continuing course of the pandemic,” Price wrote.
“We expect to be able to provide campus housing to all juniors and seniors who desire it. Should conditions improve to the point that we can safely expand the number of residential students, we will include first-year students and sophomores as well.”
Graduate and professional schools are still reviewing their plans for the fall, Price wrote, and will contact students directly.
Students who live off campus will have access to some facilities — in particular libraries and laboratories needed for academic purposes. Students living off campus will not be able to enter residence halls, dining areas or social spaces.
Price said all classes in the fall will be available in a variety of formats, including in-person, online or some combination of the two.
A “contact tracing program” will be required of all students, Price wrote, support services for students will be expanded, and there will be “quarantine spaces” on campus. Everyone on campus will be required to wear masks in public places.
There will be no public events and no visitors will be permitted in campus buildings.
“This change in plans is deeply disappointing for all of us,” Price wrote. “The connections we make and the ideas we create when we are together in classrooms, commons rooms, and across campus are what make Duke such an extraordinary place, and it will be difficult to have those experiences so significantly curtailed and constrained this fall.
“At the same time, the challenges we face together are temporary, and we are working to ensure both that the Duke experience we are offering this fall lives up to our extraordinary potential and that the Duke of years to come is an even stronger, more vibrant community.”
More details of the school’s plan for the fall semester can be found at the school’s “Return to Campus” website.
The announcement comes two weeks before first- and second-year students are set to arrive on campus, moving in in waves starting Aug. 10. The fall semester will be a sprint like never before, starting on Aug. 17 and wrapping up before Thanksgiving. There will be no fall break, and students who travel to campus are asked to remain in Durham through the end of the semester.
The restrictions will apply to student-athletes as well. Duke only recently brought back its student-athletes to campus. Football players returned on July 12, and women’s soccer players reported to campus on July 21. Other student-athletes are expected to arrive in the next week, with men’s and women’s basketball teams returning Aug. 2.
Duke becomes the first Triangle university to split up its on-campus student body by year.
All of the UNC system schools and many private colleges have already announced a mix of in-person and online classes for the fall semester.
In limiting its campus to just underclassmen, Duke joins other major universities making similar plans. The New York Times reported that Stanford University will also only have first and second-year students on campus and that Harvard will restrict its campus to no more than 40% of the student body, which it expects will be mainly freshmen.
This story was originally published July 26, 2020 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Duke will only allow freshmen and sophomores in campus housing for the fall semester."
