All IU campuses will return to in-person classes this fall

Photo credit Liz Kaye, Indiana University

Indiana University’s President Michael McRobbie announced all campuses will return to in-person learning this fall.

"This decision has been made on the basis of advice from IU's medical and public health experts who have been leading the university's comprehensive and successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly a year now," McRobbie said. "It has also been made possible because of the dedicated, determined and creative actions of our students, faculty and staff, to whom we are deeply grateful."

The university will still have some health and safety precautions in place, but the extent of the precautions will depend on the state of the pandemic and the number of those fully vaccinated.

"Having the vast majority of the IU community vaccinated against COVID-19 will be one of the keys to allowing an increase in in-person courses and activities on campuses this fall," said Aaron Carroll, director of mitigation testing; and associate dean for research mentoring and distinguished professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. "All of the vaccines currently available are highly effective. Plus, our testing data continues to show very manageable levels of COVID-19 on our campuses. We are optimistic that should the current trends continue, we'll be back on campus together this fall."

"As we have learned from the experience of the past year, in the face of this deadly pandemic we cannot set any of our plans in stone," McRobbie said. "As long as the pandemic is with us, we must be ready to adjust course rapidly, and we will constantly review our plans, activities and operations. However, because of the outstanding efforts of the entire IU community on all campuses across the state in successfully battling the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year, I am very confident that we will see a successful return to mostly normal university operations in the fall."