Seton Hall announced that there will not be a spring break for the spring 2021 semester in an email to students on Sept. 24.
The email, which also announced the University’s plan for increased COVID-19 testing, said the academic calendar for the Spring 2021 semester has been approved. Classes will begin on Jan 27 and run through May 11. There will not be a spring break, but the University will continue to close for certain holidays.
“There will be no Spring Break, but we will close for Holy Thursday, April 1 and Good Friday, April 2 and classes are canceled on Easter Monday, April 5, 2021,” the email from the Health Intervention and Communication Team (HICT) read.
Seton Hall is not the first school to already decide on canceling spring break for the upcoming semester. Other universities like Ohio State University and Purdue University have also announced that they will not have a spring break.
Spring break trips were often linked to spikes in COVID-19 cases during the early months of the virus. In a report from the CDC in June 2020 about COVID-19 outbreaks linked to college students on spring break, it pointed to the role that young people with COVID-19 and are asymptomatic play in spreading the virus.
“Investigation of an outbreak of COVID-19 among a group of college-aged travelers and their contacts demonstrated that 28% had positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test results, approximately one-fifth of whom were asymptomatic when tested,” the CDC report said. “Asymptomatic transmission has been documented in multiple settings and has led to large outbreaks. Asymptomatic persons or those with mild symptoms likely play an important role in sustaining SARS-CoV-2 transmission during outbreaks, especially in younger populations.”
The University ended the email with a link where students could give feedback and ask questions to Seton Hall’s Health Intervention and Communication Team.
Eve Krupcheck can be reached at genevieve.krupcheck@student.shu.edu
