BRUNSWICK, Maine — Bowdoin College has announced a plan for its spring semester, which will begin Monday, February 8 — two weeks later than normal.
Bowdoin will bring seniors, juniors, and sophomores back to campus, plus first-year students for whom home is not a place where they can learn, including first-year international students. All other first-year students will study remotely.
So far this semester, during which only first-years and some others were on campus, Bowdoin says it has had three students test positive for COVID-19, one of whom received the result as they were traveling to campus in August, and the other two were almost certainly infected while in transit to the College. To date, there have been no additional student infections, according to Bowdoin. Bowdoin also said it had one staff member test positive, but they subsequently had two tests that were both negative.
Classes in the spring will continue to be offered primarily online. Faculty will have the opportunity to offer in-person classes, and the school expects there will be a number of in-person upper-level classes, including laboratory courses.
All juniors and sophomores who are not studying remotely will be required to live in campus housing. All students living on campus will have single bedrooms.
There will be significant space for isolation and quarantining. Bowdoin will again use the Broad Institute COVID-19 testing program.
More on Bowdoin's plan for spring semester can be found HERE.