UMass Amherst students learning remote-only in the fall won’t be granted on-campus housing

AMHERST, Mass. — UMass students who will attend college remotely come fall will not be granted on-campus housing, the university chancellor announced Thursday.

Only students who are enrolled in “essential face-to-face classes, including laboratory, studio and capstone courses” will be accommodated in campus residence halls and allowed access to campus facilities and dining this fall, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said in a letter to the campus community.

“All other students, whose courses do not require a physical presence on campus, should plan to engage in their studies remotely, from home,” Subbaswamy said.

Subbaswamy said the “worsening conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic nationally” led to the difficult decision.

The chancellor also asked students learning remotely off-campus “to refrain from returning to the Amherst area for the fall semester, for they, too, will not have campus facilities at their disposal.”

Research laboratories, many of which resumed operation in the spring, will remain open, Subbaswamy said.

The chancellor said some students who are dependent on campus housing and dining, and others, including some international students with specific visa requirements and students in healthcare fields, will need to reside on campus.

“These situations will be handled on a case-by case basis, and in most instances will be accommodated,” Subbaswamy said.

The measures “are intended to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19 and to more effectively deploy our viral testing, contact tracing, and quarantine and isolation resources,” Subbaswamy said.

“We are moving forward with the implementation of wide-ranging viral testing protocols on campus this fall, adopting practices that go well beyond federal and state recommendations,” the chancellor said.

You can read the full statement here.

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