First day of classes for the Spring 2021 semester. Seeing the return of many more students both living on-campus and attending classes in-person, the Spring semester is still marked by restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including testing of students, social distancing, mask requirements, and reduced class sizes.

Pictured: Delphis Levia, Professor of Geography & Spatial Sciences, teaching an in-person / hybrid section of his “ENSC450: Proseminar in the Environment” class in Gore Hall.

On the first day of classes for the spring semester of 2021, more University of Delaware students returned to classrooms than in the fall, albeit with strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). In Gore Hall, Prof. Delphis Levia, who is in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences within the College of Earth, Oceans and Environment, taught a seminar class on the environment.

Spring breaks out

Article by Andrea Boyle Tippett Photo by Evan Krape February 15, 2021

UD welcomes students to more robust semester

They packed it all, and then some. Over the past few days nearly 3,900 students rolled out their comforters, hung up their posters and toted their shower caddies, books, laptops, clothes and most of their other worldly possessions into University of Delaware’s residence halls.

Their arrival signals the beginning of the spring semester, one that includes a more robust in-person experience and continued strict health protocols. In the fall, 9% of all undergraduate course sections included some face-to-face (F2F) components; this semester that is doubling to 18%. F2F courses are largely those in which an experiential component is vital to the course’s learning outcomes. And while the majority of courses remain virtual, those too are enhanced. Some faculty members are seasoned online instructors who have been teaching online for years, and in some cases, decades. Others have dedicated countless hours to designing courses for the virtual environment by adapting their instructional methods. While “staying at home” can be limiting, remote learning needn’t to be. UD’s commitment to academic excellence remains as strong as ever.

“This is a time of fresh starts and renewed energy for learning, discovery and growth, with an optimism that flows from successfully meeting the challenges of the past year and the promise of a brighter future ahead,” President Dennis Assanis wrote in a letter sent to all members of the campus community Monday.

For those who spent fall semester in Newark, much will remain the same. All residence hall bedrooms are single occupancy. An online daily health screening continues to be required of anyone accessing a UD building, off-campus indoor gatherings remain limited by city of Newark ordinance to 10 people maximum, and face coverings are mandatory on campus and in all public spaces.

Every student living in a residence hall must be tested weekly on campus for COVID-19. Student Health Services also is selecting off-campus students at random each week for mandatory testing. The University’s testing sites at Clayton Hall and Harker ISE Lab are operating Monday through Thursday, processing 6,000 tests each week. UD staff run the tests in-house, streamlining the results, which are typically available in less than 24 hours. The University is operating this testing response at maximum capacity, and thus, students living off-campus can access the testing only by invitation.

To help make testing as convenient as possible for the thousands of UD students living off campus, the University has teamed up with the state of Delaware and New Castle County to provide testing locations on Laird Campus on Fridays and STAR Campus on Saturdays. A regularly updated feed of these testing opportunities can be found on the University’s coronavirus website. All students whose off-campus housing accommodations are located in Delaware are also eligible to receive free at-home test kits from the state.

Other changes on campus include increased managed gatherings of student groups. Learning and personal growth happen not only in the classrooms and labs, but as students interact with one another. This semester more opportunities for interactions are happening on campus. Residence hall advisers will host more workshops, programs and meetings so residents can get to know each other. Leaders of the more than 200 registered student organizations will continue to hold virtual meetings and, in some instances, host socially distanced events.

Meanwhile, remote and international students remain vital members of the UD community. A great deal of events and activities will be fully virtual and most of those with in-person components include hybrid offerings. For instance, University Student Centers’ signature Perkins Live series features an entertainer or interactive event on Friday nights. Full details of all the ways students can engage this semester are available on the Student Life Virtual Hub.

“I sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding as we all adjust to the evolving reality of the pandemic,” Assanis said. “We have navigated this unprecedented pandemic together and we will come out on the other side stronger than before.”