Fall 2020 semester to start early

Concordia University, Nebraska today announced a modification to the Fall 2020 semester academic calendar, as classes will start Aug. 10, two weeks earlier than scheduled, and will conclude Nov. 24, before Thanksgiving. With this change, students will not be required to return to campus after Thanksgiving break. To accommodate this earlier timeline and to maximize instruction time, the university will forgo its traditional one-day fall break.

“Our goal has always been to provide our students the full Concordia academic experience, where they also feel at home and part of our caring community,” said Rev. Russ Sommerfeld, Concordia interim president. “Many of our students return home for Thanksgiving break. The added precaution of not requiring them to return to campus will help keep our students and our community safe, not only with respect to COVID-19, but also around the time the influenza season starts this winter.”

Concordia’s Reopening Task Force is working to identify and evaluate health safety requirements associated with reopening the campus. The group will make recommendations, aligned with governing bodies such as the State of Nebraska, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Great Plains Athletic Conference, to Concordia’s administration, which will make final decisions on additional measures implemented across campus.

“As with each decision that has been made to this point, any future plans will be made with the goal of keeping our students, faculty, staff, the city of Seward and nearby communities as safe as possible,” said Sommerfeld.

More details on safety measures implemented to ensure a safe reopening of campus, including student move-in plans, will be published as they become available. Graduate and online-only students will maintain their Aug. 31 start date.