Princeton University Prepares To Bring Back Students In Spring

PRINCETON, NJ — If all goes according to plan, Princeton University might welcome back more students to campus for spring semester. An announcement on the final decision will be made in the first week of December, university President Christopher L. Eisgruber said.

The university currently has 250 undergraduates in residence, and conducts weekly asymptomatic COVID-19 testing for on-campus students and staff.

Read More Here: Princeton University Announces Asymptomatic COVID-19 Testing

Eisgruber said that the university’s experience with COVID testing will help in making the decision to bring back more students.

“If we are able to do so, residential life will, of course, be far more constrained than what existed before the pandemic began,” Eisgruber said.

“Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun and Dean of the College Jill Dolan will soon be distributing a survey to a representative sample of undergraduates to help us assess how we can best accommodate an on-campus undergraduate population in the spring if indeed we can invite more undergraduates back,” he said.

Currently, almost all the undergraduate classes are online due to COVID-19.

The next six weeks will provide additional, and crucial, information said Eisgruber.

“We are also working with the state government to determine how we can best protect our community and operate effectively as infection rates rise and fall,” he said.

Eisgruber thanked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration for “all they are doing to enable New Jersey colleges and universities to resume activities responsibly.”

The university has so far administered over 30,000 tests with 23 positive results.

Read More Here: Four Princeton University Staff Members Test Positive Of COVID

Any student, staff member, or faculty who is on campus for more than eight hours a week is required to participate in the asymptomatic testing program.

The university President also thanked all those living and working on campus for following COVID-19 protocols.

“These simple measures are keeping people healthy and saving lives. Continued commitment to these best practices increases substantially the likelihood that we can bring back more undergraduate students for the spring semester,” he said.

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