Carthage College has announced its plans for a return to in-person, residential education this fall. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carthage has made several important modifications to its fall semester calendar, course offerings, and campus facilities in order to ensure a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff.
“I’m thrilled that we are able to provide what looks to be our largest entering class ever with in-person education that is excellent, that is safe, and that is able to respond to any uncertainties this fall,” said Carthage President John Swallow.
Carthage will begin the fall semester one week early and stagger residential students’ arrival to allow for physical distancing during move-in. New first-year students will arrive on campus beginning Aug. 28. Carthage will welcome returning residential students back to campus the following weekend.
Fall semester classes will begin on Sept. 2. The first three days of class will be online only, in order to limit the number of students on campus for the first week. In-person classes will begin Sept. 7.
To minimize risk that comes with extended travel, there will be no fall break this year and the last day of in-person classes will be Nov. 24, just before Thanksgiving Break. After Thanksgiving, classes will resume remotely for one week, before final exams are administered online Dec. 7-9.
Carthage has taken tremendous steps in recent weeks to ensure the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff as the College resumes in-person operations.
This summer, Carthage faculty are building all of their courses in a new, robust adaptive design that will allow for remote learning if a student needs accommodations during the academic year to address health concerns.
“The Carthage faculty is well-known for excellence in teaching. That excellence, under normal circumstances, is plainly visible in our classrooms, studios, labs, performance spaces, and offices,” said Provost David Timmerman. “As we move forward in this new era, we must be able to provide that excellent education both in-person and remote, should any student need to be only virtually present at any point this semester. Our faculty is doing impressive work to prepare their courses, so our students continue to get the best education possible, no matter the circumstances.”
Additional steps Carthage is taking to prepare for fall include:
● Carthage will implement new #StaySafeCarthage guidelines for all members of the Carthage community, as well as visitors. Those guidelines include the wearing of face masks in classes, meetings, and common areas; physical distancing; and symptom self-monitoring.
● All classroom spaces have been measured for appropriate capacity and air circulation and will be reduced to 50 percent of their current capacity. Plans are in place to relocate classes to larger spaces or shift to a schedule of alternating in-person and online meeting days if necessary.
● Carthage has set aside designated isolation housing for any students who become ill and must remain on campus.
● Campus Drive will be closed to vehicular traffic to allow more room for pedestrians to walk in both directions, keeping an appropriate distance.
● New signage will be installed throughout campus alerting the community to new #StaySafeCarthage guidelines, including new traffic patterns in buildings.
● Carthage will install ultraviolet lights inside air ducts in campus buildings. Commonly used in hospitals and other public spaces, UV lights are known to help kill bacteria and viruses.
Fall academic calendar dates:
- Start date: Sept. 2 (Remote), Sept. 7 (In-person)
- In-person classes end: Nov. 24
- Thanksgiving Break: Nov. 23-Nov. 29
- Remote classes: Nov. 30-Dec. 4
- Final exams: Dec. 7-Dec. 9
More information about Carthage’s plans for reopening this fall can be found at www.carthage.edu/covid-19.
