Schedule, plans announced for Winter Term & Spring Semester

Members of the Elon community,

Based on lessons we have learned during Fall Semester, and after consulting with Academic and Staff councils, the Calendar Committee and the Ready & Resilient Committee, we have made decisions about the Winter Term and Spring Semester calendars. Our plans are based on the following guiding principles:

• Elon is committed to our engaged and experiential residential model. Learning happens best and students thrive in a structured and relationship-rich environment, and data from Fall Semester demonstrates that the risk for virus transmission in classrooms is low.
• Cases tend to surge when students return from travel away from campus. We have structured our calendar to encourage students to stay on campus. This means there will not be a long spring break.
• Increased testing helps us identify cases, make effective use of quarantine and isolation, and reduce the spread of cases. We have worked hard to ensure that frequent and regular testing of the campus population will be in place in January.
• We must always be ready to make changes and adapt as conditions evolve.

All members of the campus community should read the following academic calendar details carefully and understand their role in continuing the success of this challenging academic year:

Pre-term testing

All students, faculty and staff will be required to be tested on campus for COVID-19 when they return after the December break. There will be no charge for these tests. Students who return for Winter Term must be tested prior to the start of classes. Students who are not enrolled in Winter Term must be tested prior to the start of Spring Semester. Faculty and staff are required to be tested when they return to campus after the December break. Details of those testing processes will be communicated via email before the end of the semester.

Winter Term 2021

Most classes will be held in-person or in hybrid mode, similar to the models used by faculty during Fall Semester. Students, faculty and staff who were granted remote-only accommodations for Fall Semester have been contacted by the Registrar’s office or the Office of Human Resources about their intent to continue with their current accommodations. New requests for remote-only accommodations during Winter Term will follow processes established for Fall Semester. Students who wish to submit a new request for remote-only learning for Winter Semester should contact the Office of Disability Resources by December 18, 2020.

• Classes will begin on Wednesday, January 13.
• Students should not confirm travel plans for their return to campus at this time. Once course registration is complete we will develop a schedule of assigned move-in times for the residence halls to accommodate the plans for mandatory on-campus COVID-19 testing in the days before classes begin.  Students living in university apartments and the nearby off-campus area will also be assigned testing times in the days leading up to Winter Term. We expect all arrival and testing assignments to be released to students as soon as possible in December.
• Winter Term classes will end on February 2, with exams on February 3 and grades due on February 5.
• The daily class schedule is as follows:
  • First session: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • Second session: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• In keeping with the previously announced calendar, classes will not be held on  Monday, January 18, in commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
• To protect the health of the community and a safe start to the spring semester, students should plan to stay on campus at the end of Winter Term. The break will be short and residence halls, dining halls and other campus services will remain fully open during those four days.

Notes:

• The School of Education dean will provide more information regarding student teaching during Winter Term.
• Classes in the School of Health Sciences and Elon University School of Law will begin on Jan 4. The academic deans will provide additional guidance to those students.
• The Interactive Media program director will send graduate students in the School of Communications details about their winter seminar and start of the next semester.

Spring Semester 2021

Most classes will be held in-person or hybrid mode, similar to the models used by faculty during Winter Term and Fall Semester. Students, faculty and staff who were granted remote-only accommodations for Fall Semester will be contacted to see if they wish to continue with the accommodation during Spring Terms.

Students who wish to submit a new request for remote-only learning for Spring Semester should contact the Office of Disability Resources by December 18, 2020. Faculty who wish to submit a new request for remote-only instruction should contact the Office of Human Resources and notify their academic dean no later than December 15 to ensure appropriate staffing of classes.

• Spring Semester classes will begin on Monday, February 8.
• The traditional extended Spring Break will be replaced by several shorter breaks, with no classes held on:
  • Tuesday, February 23
  • Tuesday-Wednesday, March 16-17
  • Monday, April 5
  • Wednesday, April 21
• The final class day will be Tuesday, May 11, and Reading Day is May 12
• Final exams will be held on May 13-19, with grades due May 20 and senior grades due within 24 hours of the exam period
• Commencement is tentatively scheduled for Friday, May 21. The form of Commencement has not yet been determined.

While there are still many details about Winter Term and Spring Semester to be worked out, by announcing these broad outlines now, we hope you will be able to plan for the remainder of the 2020-2021 academic year. Members of the Ready & Resilient committee will provide a revised teaching guide for faculty before Winter Term. Additional updates will be provided on the Ready & Resilient website.

Sincerely,
Aswani Volety
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs