The pool in front of the Hesburgh Library on the University of Notre Dame campus, where students will return in the fall after spring and summer classes were canceled. Staff photo by Michael Caterina
The University of Notre Dame will reopen to students Aug. 10 with plans to feature coronavirus testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation protocols, social distancing and a mask requirement.
The university’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, announced Monday that the school will welcome students two weeks earlier than originally scheduled, and will forgo fall break in October and end the semester before Thanksgiving.
“By far the most complex challenge before us is the return of our students to campus for the resumption of classes in the fall semester,” Jenkins said in a news release. “Bringing our students back is in effect assembling a small city of people from many parts of the nation and the world, who may bring with them pathogens to which they have been exposed. We recognize the challenge, but we believe it is one we can meet.”
The release does not address plans for athletics programs, including fall football season. It also does not offer specific details on the university’s plans for the fall, such as how testing will be conducted.
The university says it consulted with experts on its faculty, infectious disease specialists, a team from the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Mark Fox from the St. Joseph County Department of Health.
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