The University of Iowa said in a campus-wide email it will maintain its regular schedule for the fall, the Daily Iowan reported on Friday. That means classes will begin on Aug. 24 and run through Dec. 18.
Iowa State University, by contrast, is starting its fall semester early, so it can end classes before the Thanksgiving break.
ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said in a statement on Wednesday that ending the semester before Thanksgiving break is intended to “minimize the potential spread of COVID-19 due to holiday travel.”
In the Friday email, the UI administration said, “The university will closely monitor cases of COVID-19 throughout the fall semester and will take action deemed necessary to help mitigate the transmission of the virus.”
According to the email, UI will announce on June 17 what its plans for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 during the fall semester will be.
Kirkwood Community College, with campuses in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, announced this week it would resume in-person classes for the fall semester as well, with some opportunities for “online and hybrid learning formats” to mitigate COVID-19 spread.
At 10 a.m. on Friday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported another 381 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported during the previous 24 hours, bringing the state’s total to 23,166. The department also reported another three deaths from the virus. Those newly reported deaths bring the states COVID-19 death toll to 641.
