People walk through the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) campus in Chicago on Oct. 6, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Two University of Illinois campuses will start the spring semester with remote learning and all three campuses will require a negative COVID-19 test before students, faculty and staff return to classroom learning in January.
The Chicago campus will move to remote learning for two weeks and the Urbana-Champaign campus will move to remote learning for one week before going back to classroom learning for spring semester. The Springfield campus is set to return to in-person classes as scheduled. All three campuses will require negative COVID-19 tests before students, faculty and staff return spring semester.
The changes come as Illinois and the country are seeing a COVID-19 surge, driven in part by the new omicron variant.
UIC students will attend school online Jan. 10 to Jan. 23 with some exceptions for “health sciences colleges, labs, clinics, internships and other classes that cannot be offered virtually,” the university said in a letter on Monday.
In-person classes will start Jan. 24 with face masks required indoors. Students will be required to take a PCR test before going back to classrooms, the university said.
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“We anticipate the two-week period of online instruction will allow students to get booster doses, settle in and navigate any health issues without the concern of missing the beginning of the semester,” the UIC letter said.
Other campus areas, including residence halls, dining areas and the library, will be open at the start of the semester.
UIC students, faculty and staff will also be required to get a COVID-19 test before Jan. 24, regardless of vaccination status, the school said. Students, faculty and staff who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated will be required to test twice a week. Starting Jan. 5, students, faculty and staff in residential housing and in performing arts will be required to get a weekly test and all students are being encouraged to get tested weekly.
As the university increases its testing capacity, more targeted groups of students and employees will be asked to get tested regularly, said Susan Bleasdale, chief quality officer and assistant vice chancellor for quality and patient safety at UIC.
At the Urbana-Champaign campus, students will attend school online Jan. 18-21, with in-person classes starting Jan. 24, according to a notice on the school’s website.
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Undergraduate students, faculty and staff will be required to show two negative COVID tests at least three days apart. The first test should be taken off campus with results uploaded to the school’s COVID-19 portal. The second test will be an on-campus one, with results expected before Jan. 21.
Because of the on-campus test requirement, the school is asking Urbana-Champaign students to return to campus for the week of remote learning.
Faculty and staff are required to get both negative tests on campus, ideally before Jan. 15, the school said.
Unvaccinated students will continue to be required to test every other day.
The Springfield campus will return to in-person classes on Jan. 18 for now, though that could change in the coming weeks, said Derek Schnapp, spokesperson for the University of Illinois in Springfield.
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Late Friday, the chancellor sent an email to students informing them of testing requirements from the beginning of the semester through Feb. 10.
Unvaccinated students, faculty and staff will be required to test twice a week and those who are vaccinated will be required to test once a week.
“We’re still monitoring everything,” Schnapp said. “We’ve had a very successful fall semester with our restrictions on campus and mask requirements and that type of thing and we’re going to continue to do that. It’s proven to be successful here.”
All three campuses have a more than 95% overall vaccination rate.
UIC reported a significant increase of 242 positive cases the week of Dec. 12, up from 73 positive cases the week prior.
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The Urbana-Champaign campus reported 327 new cases the week of Dec. 12.
The Springfield campus reported four positive cases out of 99 tests on Dec. 16, and eight positive cases in a seven-day period ending Dec. 16.
UIC’s Bleasdale, who is also an infectious disease doctor, said the two weeks of remote learning will give staff time to see how the pandemic evolves.
“We’ve seen an increase in the cases very rapidly in Chicago and across the country,” she said. “This is likely from the omicron variant.”
She expects the surge to continue as people gather for the holidays, and said online learning will also allow the university to increase available testing and give people time to get fully vaccinated or get their booster shot.
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“We don’t know how much vaccination and boosting will protect from the omicron variant but it seems like there is likely some protection from that,” Bleasdale said. “Not necessarily from transmission but from severe disease.”
She said the latest variant seems to be highly contagious regardless of whether people are vaccinated and is likely spreading because people who are vaccinated have been gathering. Bleasdale urged people to be cautious about who they gather with during the holidays.
“You have to make a decision over who you take your mask down around and it shouldn’t be in a large group,” she said.
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