Pitt to reopen this fall with 'compressed' schedule during pandemic

The University of Pittsburgh will reopen this fall under an adjusted calendar and classroom capacity restrictions. Students will not return to campus after Thanksgiving break, making their last day on campus Nov. 20.

The move makes Pitt one of many universities to choose an adjusted calendar amid the covid-19 pandemic. Across the U.S., several colleges have announced fall semesters that will begin and end earlier than normal as a way to avoid a potential spike in infections.

In a “compressed” fall schedule, courses will begin Aug. 19. Students can move back to campus between Aug. 13 and 16, according to an email to students from Kenyon R. Bonner, vice provost and dean of students.

Classes will take place on Labor Day, and there will be an extended final exam period that includes the possibility of holding in-person exams the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving and remote exams the week after. Priority for in-person exams will be given to “departmental exams,” according to an email that Provost Ann E. Cudd sent to first-year students Monday afternoon. The fall term will officially end Dec. 5.

“Moving large numbers of students on and off our campuses from all around the world is a source of significant risk for our community,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher wrote in a message to campus. The compressed calendar will “minimize” the risk.

Administrators introduced a new program, Flex@Pitt, a teaching model that will allow students to be educated in-person, remotely, and in real-time. Cudd said that classrooms will be upgraded with technology to “optimize course delivery.”

“We must and will continue to monitor the pandemic and its impact and place the health and safety of everyone in the community as our starting point for our efforts forward,” Cudd wrote.

The university also plans to take aggressive infection prevention measures with social distancing and mask requirements. Gallagher said there would be containment efforts, with contact tracing, isolation and quarantine for any cases of the disease that surface.

The housing program will remain operational regardless of the pandemic’s intensity, he said, but the university is looking for ways to “de-densify” residence halls and considering alternative options to address the demand for student housing. Similarly, administrators are looking for modifications that can be made to classrooms and other campus facilities to reduce the risk of infection.

“To ensure that our infection prevention and control program is successful, we must rethink how every space on campus will be used,” Gallagher wrote.