BREAKING: NMSU plans for conventional fall 2021 semester
More stories from Alanna Herrera
Hadley Hall at NMSU houses Chancellor Arvizu’s office.
This story was corrected to attribute President John Floros and report Doña Ana County’s yellow status at 1:25 p.m. Mar. 10, 2021
New Mexico State University President John Floros said students can look forward to a “conventional” fall 2021 semester in an email Wednesday.
President Floros said this projection is due to declining cases across Doña Ana County, coupled with the vaccine distribution. Classified as a yellow county by the Department of Health on Wednesday, Doña Ana reported a positivity rate of 4.72% or 19 per 100,000 residents.
“The plan for NMSU’s main campus for fall 2021 semester is to provide as much of a conventional semester as we can, while using the public health precautions that allow us to resume shared campus experiences,” Floros said. “This means that more classes will feature in-person instruction. We also expect to see an increased number of on-campus activities for students this fall, including athletics and other events traditionally associated with the college experience.”
The “conventional semester” is defined in the email as, “a much higher percentage of in-person classes – closer to what was traditionally offered by NMSU before the pandemic – for students who would rather take courses through this method.”
The email states that online courses will still be an available option.
In the case that there is a COVID-19 outbreak on campus during the Fall semester, the university plans to return to online instruction. NMSU branch campuses will be able to make decisions based on locational circumstances.
This is a developing story, follow The Round Up for further updates regarding the coming semesters.
Alanna Herrera is entering her fourth year at The Round Up, taking on her second year as Editor-in-Chief. She is a senior with a passion for storytelling...
Samuel Dean Jacintho • Aug 24, 2021 at 8:25 AM
Classes that are participating with ‘in-person’ are not just near their original percentages of students in the classroom. Every seat is filled, and students are standing along the wall. The seats are not spaced from each other in any manner, in fact, they are closer together than airline seats. Additionally, professors have a guide on ‘clearly stating the regulations for Covid-19’. The professors tell us they are unsure what will happen, and scantly mention the schools policy on campus.
If the school is compelled, by way of fear, to hold in person classes to combat the chance of students speaking out against the poor-quality online classes, the leadership would be then endangering everyone for the sake of their compensation. The primary source of income is through tuition and if the school were to go all online, they may see students requesting, through protest, that the tuition be lowered to match the flip-phone, lesser than you-tube quality that all students are experiencing. The amount of time that has elapsed since the beginning of the pandemic and the amount of equipment support for the professors has been scraps.
Put the school online, lower the tuition. The school can find the funds from the salaries of the President and AVP, which is close to one-million dollars per year between the two of them.
Dylan • Mar 11, 2021 at 12:20 AM
Great story! Thank you for the responsive update!