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By Heart of Illinois ABC
NORMAL – Illinois State University won’t be canceling spring break next semester.
ISU floated the idea of calling off the break, scheduled for March 6 through 16, because there’s a greater risk of COVID-19 exposure while traveling and interacting with large numbers of people.
However, students, faculty, and staff responding to a university survey said they still wanted that break.
“An overwhelming number of survey respondents expressed that spring break is crucial to maintaining mental health, especially in challenging times,” administrators said in an email to the campus community.
ISU does plan to have increased testing when students come back from break.
The school is also working on offering the University of Illinois’ saliva-based COVID-19 test, which if approved by FDA could greatly increase ISU’s capacity to perform many more COVID tests with quicker results.
Much like the current semester, ISU administrators said most faculty and staff members will continue to work remotely, and a majority of courses will be taught in virtual environments.
However, there might be sudden changes to the the spring calendar due to the ongoing pandemic.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].