Ohio State will move its 2020 summer semester online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Former Managing Editor for Design
Ohio State’s suspension of in-person classes will continue through the summer.
Bruce McPheron, university executive vice president and provost, announced in a universitywide email Wednesday that all face-to-face instruction this summer will be transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer term will begin May 13 — one week later than originally scheduled — and end on July 31. Final examinations are scheduled for Aug. 3-5 and summer commencement will be Aug. 9.
“We cannot yet predict when current restrictions on our campuses will ease, so we are moving forward to provide a consistent academic experience for the summer term,” McPheron said.
According to Ohio State’s 15th day enrollment report, 21,633 students took classes last summer. The semester consists of different-lengthed sessions and classes that are discounted by 25 percent.
Summer courses — including labs, lectures, discussion sections, seminars and other in-person modes of instruction — will be graded on the traditional A-E scale, McPheron said. He said the pass/nonpass proposal for general education and nonmajor courses passed by the University Senate March 26 only applies to spring semester.
The university will continue to evaluate whether clinical experiences for relevant disciplines will be able to occur in the summer, McPheron said.
Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said at a press conference Monday that COVID-19 will likely reach its peak in mid-to-late April, according to models created by the Infectious Disease Institute at Ohio State.
The peak of the outbreak is expected to have about 10,000 new cases per day by late April, according to the model, but forecasts show the peak could have been about 62,000 new cases per day in late March had the state of Ohio not acted when it did.
“We’ve looked at worst case scenario and best case scenario,” Acton said. “I feel that our modellers at OSU are giving us the most realistic scenario of what we can deal with.”
At the time of publication, there were 2,199 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 55 deaths and 585 hospitalizations in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s website.
“Ohio State’s highest priority is the health and well-being of our community, and the university is following public health guidance in all decisions,” McPheron said. “At the same time, we continue to adapt so that all members of the university community can continue in their academic progress.”
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