Penn State has canceled all in-person summer classes due to the coronavirus pandemic, extending its remote online learning period past the end of the spring 2020 semester.
The university has also announced plans to adjust summer tuition to ease the “persistent fiscal strain [the coronavirus pandemic] is causing across Pennsylvania and the country,” according to a Penn State News release.
All instruction will be given through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous means.
The decision was made to extend online learning “given the continuing challenge and uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic and to protect the health of students, faculty and staff” at the university, the release reads.
“Although this decision will impact the revenue stream for the University, it does not in any way change the focus of our academic mission or the quality of our programs, courses and degrees," Penn State President Eric Barron said in the release.
Undergraduate tuition will be adjusted based on the preexisting campus-tier system that tuition is already calculated with, and will vary based on academic year and major.
University Park, Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks and Harrisburg campuses are counted as “Tier 3” while every other campus is “Tier 5.”
Graduate and World Campus students will also have their tuition adjusted for summer courses, being billed 95 percent of full tuition.
The tuition adjustments are subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees, which will meet in May.
While the university has said it has planned to continue online learning for all summer sessions, there could be a possibility — public health guidelines allowing — of potentially returning to in-person instruction sometime later in the summer, according to the release.
Any decisions to potentially bring students back to campus “will be made based on guidance from government and health authorities and include careful planning focused first and foremost on the health and well-being of students, faculty and staff,” the release reads.
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