RIC’s reopening plan involves most classes being held online

Updated at 4:20 p.m. on July 24, 2020.

RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE announced Friday its reopening plan for the fall, which includes most of its classes being held online. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE announced Friday its reopening plan for the fall, which includes most of its classes being held online. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island College’s reopening plan for the fall will involve most of their classes being held online, the state college announced Friday.

The campus on Mount Pleasant Avenue, which had 7,222 undergraduate students attend in the 2019-20 academic year according to Providence Business News research, was among the many colleges and universities that closed its campuses in March to in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While most local colleges, such as the University of Rhode Island, Bryant University, Roger Williams University, Salve Regina University, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Wheaton College, have plans that include in-person and hybrid class models, RIC said its plan will have teaching, learning and working “in a predominantly remote environment.”

RIC said some select studio and laboratory classes, along with some first-year courses, “may” be offered in person. Students and faculty are expected to receive visual and verbal screening before entering class buildings for instruction.

Fall classes will commence Aug. 31, with final exams ending Dec. 22, RIC said. The spring semester will begin Jan. 19, 2021, and run through May 3, 2021. RIC will have a spring break from March 8, 2021, through March 12, 2021.

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The college said it will limit conferences, events and other social gatherings on campus per guidance by both the R.I. Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Adams Library will only be open to those with a RIC ID, and not to the public, RIC said.

RIC will also still offer on-campus housing, but at 50% – or approximately 460 beds – of the college’s occupancy from last year, said RIC Vice President for College Advancement and External Relations Kimberly Conway Dumpson in an email Friday to Providence Business News. The college’s maximum housing capacity is 1,100 beds.

Students moving into campus from “hotspot” areas will have to quarantine for 14 days after arriving to the college, RIC said.

In addition to encouraging everyone to download the state’s Crush COVID app, the college is recommending all faculty and staff and most students to be tested for COVID-19 by their primary care providers. Testing for student athletes and resident assistants will be done on campus by a third-party medical provider, RIC said. Face coverings will also be required on campus unless an exception is made for health reasons.

Regarding quarantine and isolation, RIC said it will first direct residential students to quarantine or isolate at home if they either test positive for the virus or come in contact with someone who has. If they can’t go home, students will quarantine inside Browne Hall on campus.

Employees who either test positive or come in contact with someone who has tested positive must stay home until cleared to return, RIC said. All athletic venues on campus, including the Murray Center, tennis facility and fields, will be closed to the public, RIC said, and only accessible to students, faculty and staff.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

This story has been updated to include details on RIC’s on-campus housing capacity.

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