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West Virginia University and Marshall University have announced plans to have their students return to campus for the fall semester.
"We have every hope and expectation of safely resuming in-person education in Morgantown, Beckley and Keyser for the fall semester," WVU President Gordon Gee said. "The safety and well-being of students, faculty and staff, as well as the community will drive decisions, but we believe it will be possible to restart classes on campus, albeit with new measures, guidelines and precautions to inhibit the spread of COVID-19."
Added Marshall President Jerome A. Gilbert, "We know our students and their families place great value on the personal approach we offer at Marshall, and we are working steadily toward safely and responsibly providing an on-campus academic experience for our students in the fall. Given the trends and projections available to us today, we believe that modifications to the fall semester--such as creative class scheduling and other social distancing strategies--can make that possible."
This is big news in relation to sports and the resumption of college athletics, as most of the country's institutions are against the idea of having sports with no students on campus.
"Our players are students. If we're not in college, we're not having contests," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Vice President Mike Pence in April, according to CBSSports.com.
"Our message was, we need to get universities and colleges back open, that we were education-based programs, and we weren't going to have sports until we had something closer to normal college going on."
WVU Board Chairman David Alvarez acknowledged challenges remain, but tuition will not be affected.
"While the university is facing financial challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the interest of our students and their families during these difficult times our board has chosen not to increase tuition for the 20-21 school year," he said.
Marshall Provost Jaime R. Taylor and others in the Division of Academic Affairs are working with the academic deans and university health and safety experts to develop academic and student life plans for the fall.
"We will be sharing more information as their plans are finalized, but I wanted you to know that at this time, we are committed to having as close to a normal fall semester for our students as we possibly can," Gilbert said.