{"id":140345,"date":"2021-04-29T09:50:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T19:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=140345"},"modified":"2021-04-29T11:23:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T21:23:33","slug":"uh-hilo-update-fall-2021-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/29\/uh-hilo-update-fall-2021-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Hilo chancellor message: Update on fall 2021 semester"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"hilo<\/p>\n

This message was shared with the students, faculty and staff of the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo on April 29, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aloha UH<\/abbr> Hilo ʻohana<\/span>,<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, we are less than four months away from the beginning of the fall 2021 semester. I know you are all thinking of spring finals right now, but I also know many are making their fall plans. The prospects certainly look better for fall 2021 than they did for fall 2020. More and more people are getting vaccinated and the COVID cases are being kept low on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island.\u00a0As we plan for our campus reopening to more in-person activity, the health and safety of our community remains our highest priority alongside keeping students on track toward their graduation.<\/p>\n

\"Irwin
Bonnie Irwin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We face two challenges in re-opening our campus to more in-person activities: vaccination rates and physical distancing recommendations. We had to set the fall course schedule in late March and now in late April, we still have not received new guidance from the CDC<\/abbr> or the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Health on whether we can reduce the 6-foot physical distancing.\u00a0That requirement reduces the number of people we can get into a classroom by two-thirds.\u00a0As more people get vaccinated, there is a probability that those distances will be reduced.<\/p>\n

Many of our classrooms are set up for a hy-flex (some in-person, some online) format, and we may be able to accommodate more students in the face-to-face portion of the class as the distancing requirements are lessened. Our current breakdown of classes is:<\/p>\n