IU Southeast plans for in-person fall 2021 semester

25th February 2021

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – IU President Michael A. McRobbie announced that the fall 2021 semester on all IU campuses will be in person and that the university expects that the fall semester will see a return to mostly normal operations.

“This decision has been made on the basis of advice from IU’s medical and public health experts who have been leading the university’s comprehensive and successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly a year now,” McRobbie said. “It has also been made possible because of the dedicated, determined and creative actions of our students, faculty and staff, to whom we are deeply grateful.”

Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, the university has implemented a number of health and safety policies to safely allow as many on-campus academic, research and creative activities as possible. Positivity rates have continued to fall and have recently been 0% at IU Southeast in part because of these policies.

Ongoing mitigation testing of IU Southeast students, faculty and staff has played a major role in enabling IU Southeast to manage COVID-19 on campus, with over 200 tests completed across the university each week and tens of thousands of tests being completed across all IU campuses per week. As vaccine eligibility expands, IU is strongly encouraging everyone to get vaccinated as soon as they’re eligible.

Fall 2021 may not look exactly like the fall semester of 2019, but it won’t be like fall 2020. The university will likely continue to have some health and safety precautions in place this fall, but much will depend on the state of the pandemic and the vaccine and how many in the IU community are fully vaccinated.

“This great news is a result of all of our hard work and strict adherence to IU’s health and safety guidelines,” said IU Southeast Chancellor Ray Wallace. “As we have learned this past year, this health crisis is constantly changing, but I could not be more proud of the IU Southeast community’s patience, understanding and commitment to keeping us all safe and healthy. Together we are moving forward.”

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