Eastern Michigan delays on-campus class, dormitory move-ins for students until mid-September

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Eastern Michigan University has pushed back its move-in date for students and is transitioning its classes to online-only until mid-September. 

Delaying any shift toward on-campus class or living, the university's committees and leadership teams assessing the school's future direction decided to keep things remote after monitoring how other university restarts had gone.

An increase in COVID-19 associated with students returning to campus prompted EMU's Safe Return Steering Committee, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, and the University's Executive leadership team to postpone a return to the Ypsilanti campus and re-examine its reopening steps.

In a statement, the university's president said it had prioritized the health and safety of students were "paramount." "We also made clear that we would evolve our planning in order to be responsive to the changing science, data, government directives, and other critical information regarding COVID-19," said James Smith.

“The events of the last week at campuses across the region and nation demonstrate that despite the best efforts to keep students, employees and communities safe from transmission, the dangers of increasing the spread of the virus and the challenges of maintaining physical distance and safe behavior heading into Labor Day weekend remain quite serious.”

Health officials have noted that the pandemic, which has unraveled plans for successful fall semester rollouts for colleges, has been spread via community transmission due to young people congregating in crowds and not observing social distancing rules. 

A few hours north in Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Central Michigan University's administration says it's considering suspending students for attending large parties. Classes returned to CMU last week. Video from over the weekend that was posted on Twitter filmed crowds of students near one of the off-campus neighborhoods. 

While remote learning was scheduled to make up a majority of classes this fall at EMU, 20-25% was still expected to be taught in person. Instead, any in-person learning won't return until at least Sept. 20. Any students who were planning on moving into residence halls will have to wait until Sept. 17 to do so.

Anyone who already moved in, which includes international students, some student-athletes, and others would be allowed to remain. 

There will also be exceptions to in-person learning, primarily within the School of Nursing and other Schools in the College of Health and Human Services. 

“Without knowing the future, I cannot be 100 percent certain of any decision concerning this disease, but I believe a three-week delay in move-in is highly prudent and in the best interests of our campus," said Smith. 

Michigan's COVID-19 status has reached something of a plateau in recent weeks. Buoyed between daily case rates as high as 1,100 and as low 374, health officials have been chasing spikes around the state.