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MU not planning to revise classes due to omicron variant; Stephens College will start online

Sara Shahriari
/
KBIA

The University of Missouri System is not planning to delay the start of the spring semester or move to online classes, despite a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases fed by the spread of the omicron variant of the virus.

Stephens College, however, will be remote for the first two weeks of its spring semester, from Jan. 10-21, said spokesperson Derrell Carter.

Columbia College has not finalized any decisions about adjusting its academic calendar, spokesperson Sam Fleury said.

At MU, spokesperson Christian Basi said the university is currently not anticipating any scheduling changes. Classes at the MU campus in Columbia will begin as planned Jan. 18.

“We would communicate any of those changes to our campus community,” Basi said.

The mask and vaccine policy at MU will also remain the same, Basi said. Most students, regardless of vaccination status, will not be required to wear masks indoors.

The university continues to strongly recommend wearing masks and getting vaccinated.

More than 70 colleges nationwide had announced by Jan. 1 that they will be switching to online learning or delaying the start of the spring semester, according to The Associated Press.

Among them are Harvard and Stanford universities. Harvard is moving classes online for the first three weeks of the new term and Stanford for two, according to the publication Inside Higher Education

The University of Chicago is delaying the beginning of spring classes and is scheduling the first two weeks of instruction online.

Other universities either delaying the semester or moving to remote learning are Columbia University, Michigan State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Georgetown and George Washington universities, and seven campuses belonging to the University of California system.

Some universities in the U.S. are allowing students back on campus but still holding classes online.

At Stephens College, students and employees are "required to be tested prior to returning to campus, regardless of vaccination status," according to a Tuesday morning news release. Unvaccinated individuals are required to get tested weekly.

Stephens College has a 91% vaccination rate, the release said.

The Columbia Missourian is a community news organization managed by professional editors and staffed by Missouri School of Journalism students who do the reporting, design, copy editing, information graphics, photography and multimedia.