Dartmouth gave more details today - here is some of what they laid out
-Priority by Term:
We plan to bring back to campus more than half of our undergraduates for the fall term and anticipate doing so for each subsequent term through the summer of 2021. This will give each student the opportunity to spend two terms enrolled on campus this academic year and to enroll via distance learning from home for one or both of the remaining two terms.
In the interest of class cohesion, the Class of 2024 will receive priority to be on campus as a residential cohort for the fall and spring terms and will enroll for an off-campus winter term. International students in the Class of 2024 who have difficulty securing a visa in time to begin the fall term will be permitted to enroll off-campus. Other undergraduates will be able to express their preferences for their two residential terms, with the understanding that the ’23s will receive priority to be on campus for the 2021 summer term (along with the ’22s who chose to defer their 2020 sophomore summer because of COVID-19). Members of the Class of 2022 will receive priority for the fall 2020 term and ’21s for the spring 2021 term. We are committed to working with high-need students as we did in the spring and summer terms and will provide more information soon. No enrolled student is required to be on campus for any term and may elect to spend the entire year enrolled off-campus.
-Arrival/Calendar:
Dartmouth will begin the undergraduate fall term on Sept. 14 as scheduled. We will shortly share the move-in dates, which will reflect a 14-day quarantine for all students upon arrival. We will ask undergraduates who are on campus to depart as soon as fall term classes end. Final exams for all undergraduates (and most graduate students) will be held remotely the week after Thanksgiving, allowing students to depart campus several days earlier than Thanksgiving break and avoid the anticipated peak travel period.
-Student Campus Residences:
This coming year we will expect all undergraduates who are on campus to live in rooms that have private, single sleeping spaces (individual rooms and two-room doubles) in order to maintain appropriate physical distancing. This reduces the number of undergraduate housing spaces available in any one term but will limit the risk of disease transmission among students and provide quiet study space, which will be particularly helpful for remote learning.
-Teaching and Learning:
The majority of undergraduate instruction and faculty office hours will be held remotely this fall, although some in-person classes will be offered on campus. Physical distancing requirements of 6 feet between people mean that we will have substantially reduced classroom space available to students. We pride ourselves on our commitment to teaching and we view the challenge of doing so remotely—for however long that it is required—as mission-critical.
-Campus Life:
The reality of COVID-19 means that the campus environment will be very different this fall. There will be strict limitations on gatherings, social activities, and lectures. We will have new protocols for using campus buildings and common spaces, restricted travel with self-quarantine protocols, contact tracing, a requirement to wear face coverings everywhere but private spaces, enhanced cleaning procedures, staggered scheduling and reconfigured workspaces, and limited access to buildings. The College library will be open to the Dartmouth community of students, faculty, and staff.
Everyone coming to live on campus will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. As part of a collective commitment to community, all those working and living on-site will be required to participate in daily health screening via an app or website. We will also mandate virus testing upon any return to campus and regularly thereafter. We are mindful of the need to maintain individual privacy, and test results will be made available only to those who need access in order to address this aspect of community health. This will likely include testing of employees coming to campus who have traveled outside the area before the start of the term.
Despite the precautions that must be taken for students to be on campus, we feel it is important to continue to provide them with Dartmouth’s extraordinary sense of place. Being in an academic environment in this setting helps promote learning, the exchange of ideas, and thoughtful reflection and will help strengthen our sense of community.
-Additional-
As a reminder, any or all of our plans may be changed if we experience a significant health event on our campus, or if required by federal or state mandates. Conversely, successful disease prevention or treatment efforts—such as the availability of a vaccine—could also shift the landscape. We intend to evaluate the situation on a termly basis and adapt our plans accordingly. Our later start date means we can look to the experiences of other schools to help guide our decisions.