COVID-19 Planning: Academic and Testing Updates

Key Points

• A mostly remote spring semester will begin January 26.
• All courses will be fully remote for the first week.
• Residential student move-in will continue on schedule.
• COVID-19 testing will be required for students, faculty, and staff approved to be on campus.

Dear UMBC Community,

As we near the end of the semester, the COVID-19 Planning Coordinating Committee (C-19 PCC) wants to provide important updates on our upcoming semesters. Due to the continued rise in COVID-19 positivity rates in Maryland and across the nation, as well as predictions from public health experts that this surge will continue through the winter, we continue to work to de-densify campus through remote work and education. 

Spring Semester Schedule

The first day of classes is January 26. The first week of instruction will be conducted remotely.Face-to-face and hybrid classes that were scheduled to meet in person will now meet online on Tuesday, January 26 through Monday, February 1. 

This will allow time for students who are traveling to campus from out-of-state or internationally to quarantine and for professors to communicate with students about when and how face-to-face classes will meet. During the spring semester, approximately 10 percent of courses will be hybrid or face-to-face. Residential student move-in will continue on schedule, January 22 - 26.  

Campus Access

Research and Creative Achievement will continue in its current mode. Other faculty and staff who are not currently working on campus will need to apply or reapply to return to campus. We plan to streamline this application process and will share additional details before the start of the semester.

On-Campus Safety Measures

All faculty, staff, and students who are approved to be on campus after the holiday break will need to submit a negative COVID-19 test result prior to arriving on campus. We are currently exploring options for conducting free testing on campus. You will also be able to submit a negative test result from an off-campus provider. We hope to provide more details on testing by the end of December. 

On-campus safety measures will continue, including daily online symptom tracking. The C-19 PCC is working on processes for closely monitoring compliance. Individuals who are not in compliance are placing the health of others at risk and may lose their access to campus. You can check your compliance status in your myUMBC profile. 

Winter and Summer Session Updates

The winter 2021 session is entirely online. Summer 2021 sessions will be conducted primarily online, with the same approval process as for the fall and spring semesters for instructors who are requesting courses with face-to-face components. 

We understand that the present situation is dynamic, and we will continue to monitor health conditions on campus and across the state so that we can be prepared to make changes to our spring semester plan as needed. 

We appreciate your continued commitment to the health and safety of our community and thank you for your efforts that allowed this semester to be a successful one. We wish our students success in their finals and end-of-semester projects. We also want to encourage any community member in need of help to reach out. Academic and personal support resources are available on the Retriever Ready website. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to us at covid19@umbc.edu.

Provost Philip Rous

Vice President for Administration and Finance Lynne Schaefer

COVID-19 Planning Coordinating Committee Co-Chairs