St. FX to use mixture of online, in-person classes for fall semester

St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., will be offering its fall coursesthrough a combination of online learning and on-campus classes.

Interim president Dr. Kevin Wamsley saidthere will be many safety measures in place to keep students and staff at the university safe from COVID-19.

"We've been planning now for about nine weeks with different models on how we would return in the fall," he said. "The university of 2020 will not look like the university of 2019."

A motion was put forward by the university senate on Thursday and approved by the board of directors Friday morning.

Classes are scheduled to resume Sept. 14.

Wamsleyanticipates 73 per cent of classes will be taught in person, while the remaining 27 per cent will be online.

The university's enrolment is more than 3,800 people, whichalmost doubles the number of people in the town during the school months.

While the university is important to the town's economy, MayorLaurie Boucher said some people are on edge over COVID-19concerns.

"We are an aging population, both here in the town and in the county," said Boucher. "We have some citizens who are already anxious about it because for the last three months we've been told to stay away from people."

The hybrid plan from St. FX is similar to what Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.,has adopted for its fall classes, which begin Sept. 21.

Most classes at Dalhousie University in Halifax will be online, butprograms requiring experiential learning, like medicine, dentistry and agriculture, will be completed offline.

Saint Mary's University in Halifax and Cape Breton University are all opting for online classes in the fall.

MORE TOP STORIES