No in-person classes will be held during the 2020 summer term, provost Joseph Helble announced in an email to the Dartmouth community on Monday afternoon. Sophomore summer will be entirely online, similar to spring.
Traditional grades will be awarded during the summer quarter, rather than the credit/no credit marks used this term. The College announced in an email on March 23 that grades would be given “even if summer term is taught partly or entirely through remote learning.”
The College made the decision to continue remote learning through the summer term in light of “the continuing progression” of COVID-19, according to Helble. In his email on Monday, he cited current personal protective equipment and testing shortages and the fact that cases continue to increase daily in the U.S. He wrote that “current modeling” does not indicate that the pandemic will be sufficiently contained by June.
He added that bringing students to campus from around the globe would pose “a significant public health risk to our students and to our faculty and staff, their families, and the Upper Valley community.”
Helble’s email invited the sophomore class to alter their D-Plans to stay on-campus during next summer, joining the Class of 2023’s sophomore summer.
Additionally, all athletic camps and residential summer programs have been canceled for the summer months. The Hopkins Center for the Arts has also canceled all in-person events and will remain closed through August.
Helble asked staff and faculty to continue to work remotely, adding that in the “late spring and early summer,” the College expects to begin “exploring options” regarding the slow re-opening of on-campus operations, in accordance with state and federal guidelines.
The email added that the COVID-19 task force, chaired by Lisa Adams MED’90 and Joshua Keniston, and other working groups, will now focus on “identifying possible scenarios for fall term.”
