AMHERST — Amherst College officials anticipate having just over half of the student body return to campus for the fall semester, and most will be first-year students and sophomores, according to a COVID-19 reopening plan announced by President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin this week.
On Wednesday, Martin sent a letter to the campus community stating the college expects to have between 1,200 and 1,250 students, or about 60% of the student body, living on campus from mid to late August until in-person instruction ends on Nov. 20.
A priority for on-campus housing will be given to freshmen and sophomores, transfer students, seniors scheduled to graduate in the fall and seniors returning after spending part of the last academic year studying abroad. Two other categories of students — senior thesis writers whose work requires access to campus facilities, or materials that would otherwise be unavailable, and students whose home circumstances impede their academic progress — can also petition to live on campus.
“We know this decision will disappoint those of you who want to be on campus in the fall and will instead have to wait until spring semester,” Martin writes, observing that there is a hope to have all students back on campus for the second part of the 2020-2021 academic year. “We are also disappointed that you won’t be here the whole year.”
The pandemic is prompting the college to lower density on campus, which is being done through assigning only one student per room in the residence halls, ensuring a low student-to-bathroom ratio, and making sure health care resources, both on campus and in the region, are not taxed should there be a surge in cases of the novel coronavirus.
Students will have to follow several requirements, including daily self-monitoring and self-reporting, regular testing, physical distancing, wearing masks and face coverings in all public spaces and not having large gatherings. Should a student test positive for COVID-19, isolation will be required on campus or in a room at the Inn on Boltwood. There will also be some restrictions on travel off campus, both in the area and beyond.
All meals will be provided on a grab-and-go basis, with students using an app to select their meal, pickup time and location for getting it.
The reopening plan, which will depend significantly on remote instruction, is in line with what is happening at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where fewer students will live on campus, most teaching will be done remotely and students will depart for the semester at Thanksgiving; and at Mount Holyoke College, where all students will have the opportunity to live on campus, but not at the same time, with freshmen and sophomores arriving in the fall and juniors and seniors coming in the spring.
With classes beginning Aug. 24 at Amherst College, following a staggered move-in of seven to 10 days, 20 tents will be set up on the campus, primarily for seminar-style classes, with backup indoor classrooms available in case of inclement weather. All classrooms and tents will have high-touch surfaces cleaned during the day, including a daily deep clean and disinfection. Some classes will be taught entirely in a remote format, including all with more than 35 students.
For financial aid, the college is remaining committed to meeting the full financial needs of its students, increasing the Amherst grant for most of those who receive aid by $4,600.
Students who study remotely will pay less, not having to pay the room and board component of the comprehensive fee of $15,910 per year, or the student fees of $1,000 per year.
Martin explained in her letter that the decisions are based on consultation with experts in medicine and epidemiology, including alumni David Kessler, a physician and former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist and Ezekiel Emanuel, a physician with expertise in public health and ethics who serves as an administrator at the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition, the college had conversations with Paul Farmer and his colleagues at Partners in Health about contact tracing and consulted with experts at the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts and Gov. Charlie Baker’s Higher Education Working Group.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
