Le Moyne outlines plan for fall semester on-campus instruction

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — For its upcoming fall semester, Le Moyne College is planning an early start date for first-year students and preventive measures to ensure the safety and health of all campus members.

It’s also incorporating “flexibility” in instruction delivery and an early end to the on-campus portion of the semester in the plan it calls “Back Home to the Heights.”

Le Moyne President Linda LeMura outlined the plan in a letter to the campus community posted Tuesday on the school’s website. The plan provides an outline for the fall semester in a “responsible, thoughtful and deliberate way,” LeMura wrote.

LeMura noted that the plan is pending final approval by the State of New York and is subject to changes based on forthcoming guidelines in the New York Forward parameters for higher education institutions.

Le Moyne says the plan was “specifically formulated to ensure that the health and safety of all community members are safeguarded” through the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), personal hygiene, social distancing, and enhanced cleaning practices. It also establishes “clear” guidelines for symptom monitoring, testing, on-going health surveillance and, if necessary, isolation and quarantine for anyone testing positive for COVID-19.

The full message and plan outline is available on the Le Moyne website.

Students and classes

The College will reopen on a phased timeline that will follow all public-health protocols for reducing density, social distancing, and PPE usage.

First-year residential students will arrive between Aug. 13 and 15, and upperclassmen will return between Aug. 28 and 31.

Le Moyne says it will adjust move-in days to reduce the number of individuals on campus and in one location at a given time.

First-year students — both residential and those who commute — will spend their first two weeks on campus attending orientation activities and taking an accelerated Core 100 course, which will conclude in September.

More information on orientation and taking the Core class is “forthcoming,” per LeMura’s letter.

Regular coursework for the semester will begin Aug. 31. The fall 2020 semester will not have any holidays or breaks (except weekends) and in-person classes will conclude by Thanksgiving. All remaining instruction and final exams will be done remotely.

Le Moyne professors will conduct classes using a hybrid instructional model to decrease density in individual classrooms and throughout academic buildings.

Faculty will undergo extensive training during the summer months and will be prepared to teach their courses in both hybrid and distance education formats, “if necessary,” Le Moyne said.