CONWAY — Hendrix College won’t start the fall term with face-to-face courses, as previously planned, and will instead begin remotely, the college announced Wednesday.
The college, which enrolled 1,121 students last fall, may pivot to in-person learning later in the semester if covid-19 infection trends change, according to the announcement.
College trustees approved the decision Wednesday “in order to keep students, faculty, and staff safe in the wake of dramatic increases in COVID-19 cases,” the news release states.
Hendrix’s announcement comes six days after Lyon College trustees voted to shift to remote-only instruction for the duration of the fall term, also because of concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the covid-19 disease. Lyon College trustees and leaders had been concerned about not being able to contain the virus’ spread in the college’s residential setting.
Arkansas’ public institutions of higher education still plan to hold courses at least partially face-to-face this fall.
The number of active covid-19 cases in Arkansas has jumped to more than 6,000 after being generally at or below 1,000 until mid-May, when the state was only just reopening many businesses that had closed or had been restricted to prevent the virus’ spread.
People ages 18 to 24 comprise about 13.8% of the more than 40,000 covid-19 cases in Arkansas since March.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences models of projected cases have shown that total case number could as much as triple by the end of September.
Hendrix had been preparing for in-person instruction for months, recently teaming with the University of Central Arkansas and Central Baptist College — both also in Conway — to help test students and trace the contacts of those who test positive.
“While we are confident in our campus safety plans and our partners in the community, we have serious concerns, based on public health data and predictive models, about the current trajectory of the virus in central Arkansas and across the state, as well as increases in infections in areas from which many of our out-of-state students come,” Hendrix College President Ellis Arnold said in the news release.
In the release, Board of Trustees Chairwoman Jo Ann Biggs thanked college leaders for the planning they’d done to facilitate reopening.
“The current circumstances require us to re-examine our intentions to begin the semester in person,” she said. “The health, safety, and well-being of the Hendrix community is, and must continue to be, our highest priority. We look forward to welcoming students back to the Hendrix campus when conditions improve.”