COLUMBUS – There will be students on the OSU campus this fall, but there are still many unanswered questions about what college life will be like for those students because of ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outgoing president Michael Drake announced at a meeting of the university Board of Trustees Wednesday that OSU plans to resume in-person classes for the autumn semester but that specific guidelines will be announced in the coming weeks based on guidance from state and local health authorities and recommendations of the Safe Campus and Scientific Advisory Subgroup of the university’s COVID-19 Transition Task Force.
The resumption of full operations will combine in-person and distance learning methods and will involve the use of face coverings, physical distancing and hand-washing.
Plans will be worked out for limiting density in indoor spaces and controlling of the flow of traffic into and around buildings.
Employees will continue to work from home when possible, Drake said.
The university plans to reduce the density in dorms and availability updates will be provided later in June. The housing exemption criteria for returning second-year students will be expanded.
The first day of classes will be Aug. 25, and the semester will end on Dec. 4 with the last day of in-person, on-campus instruction taking place Nov. 25. Instruction in the last week of the semester and final exams from Dec. 7 to 11 will be carried out remotely.
Fall break from Oct. 15-16 has been canceled and students will not have Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, off.
The university will publish a Safe and Healthy Playbook that will detail measures to be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19
In other business, the trustees elected Kristina Johnson, PhD, as the university’s 16th president, taking over for Drake, who plans to retire this month.
The board also approved a 3.9% increase in tuition and fees for undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Tuition for incoming first-year students will increase to $11,518, which will be frozen for those students under the four-year-old Ohio State Tuition Guarantee. The surcharge for out-of-state students will increase by 3.6%.