Students and Families

To accommodate students and faculty needs, fall courses will be offered in different formats, and for registration each class will be designated as in-person, hybrid, or remote. Remote and hybrid options will be especially important for students and faculty who cannot be on campus. Regardless of the format, our faculty members are committed to offering high-quality, meaningful and personalized interactions with students, and to teaching the courses in a manner commensurate with the high expectations of a Trinity College education.

Faculty members are working hard to strengthen the remote learning experience for students. All courses taught remotely next year will be expected to meet during the assigned time, and we will do our best to accommodate students across time zones. Faculty this summer are being trained in the best practices of remote instruction, and they are participating in hands-on course design studios led by national experts. We are enhancing technology in our classrooms (including adding more cameras, microphones, and other equipment) to improve both the in-person and remote learning experience.

Our academic year will consist of four terms. Fall term courses will run either 10 weeks or 13 weeks, depending on the needs of the course. In-person learning for the fall would conclude by November 20 (students would not return to campus after the November vacation break). Thirteen-week classes would continue remotely through December, with exams for all concluding by December 21.

There will be a 5-week, optional, remote winter term beginning in January. There will be a 10- or 13-week spring term, a mirror image to the fall semester, followed by a 5-week, optional summer term here on campus, assuming conditions allow. Students will be able to take up to 11.5 credits across all four terms.

More details are in this letter from Acting Dean of Faculty Sonia Cardenas.

Course information will be available beginning July 2, and academic advising will run from Monday, July 6, through Friday, July 10. Course registration begins for seniors on July 13; for juniors, July 15; and for sophomores, July 17. First-year students will submit their course choices beginning on July. 20. Advising week for graduate students begins July 6, with course registration beginning on July 13.

The Center for Academic Advising will host two information sessions for Academic Registration: one for returning students at 7 p.m. on July 8, and one for first-year students at 7 p.m. on July 9. Dean Cardenas will be writing to students with more detailed information about course registration.

Access to academic facilities is crucial to students’ engagement with the community, including their professors and peers, as well as research and projects.

Work is underway to reconfigure classrooms, dining halls, and activity spaces to allow for appropriate physical distancing (reducing classroom density significantly).

While we know that some activities may be limited as we work to maintain physical distancing to protect the health and safety of our community, our faculty are excited to restart student research in their labs, to create art in our studios, and to facilitate community engagement in as full and rich a manner as possible.

As reported in the budget letter on June 25, 2020, one important decision we have made this year is to not raise the comprehensive fee for students in the coming year. Tuition and room and board fees will remain flat, at 2019-20 levels, and will cover the four terms of the new academic calendar; financial aid also will apply across these terms. We know that our families need additional flexibility and support during this time.

The tuition rates will be the same whether a class is remote or in person. All of our students will continue to have access to small classes and personalized interactions with extraordinary faculty members. Our tuition covers instruction inside and outside of the classroom, including career services, health and mental health services, athletics activities, and so many other items that we consider essential for a holistic liberal arts educational experience. Those services will continue to be available for our students, and they will be available with greater flexibility over the four terms of the academic year. Most importantly, we are all committed to support our students navigate this unprecedented time in our country and our world.

We will welcome as many as 1,700 students to residence halls for the start of the semester. That is the maximum number of students with whom we can provide single bedrooms—a measure we feel is appropriate and necessary to minimize health risk. Some will live in singles, others in suites with common rooms. No bedrooms on campus will be configured for more than one person.

In addition to those 1,700 students who may live in campus housing, we expect another 200 will reside nearby in off-campus housing. We anticipate this will accommodate all students who wish to return in the fall; we will know more after class registration. Meanwhile, for a variety of reasons, we know that some number of students will need to take classes remotely.

The housing lottery will open on July 14 for seniors and continue on ensuing days for juniors and sophomores. Housing assignments will be made the week of July 20. First-year students will be assigned to housing based on their nest and their first-year seminar assignment. First-year students will receive their housing assignment in August.

We are scheduling staggered arrivals and move-in dates for students to facilitate physical distancing at the start of the semester. The details on testing are evolving as guidance from the state has changed in recent days. We will provide more information on COVID testing for students, as well as specifics on arrival dates and times, in early August.

Please note that on June 24, 2020, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey issued a joint travel advisory mandating that travelers into these states from areas with significant COVID-19 community spread (those states now deemed “hot spots” where the number of cases continues to grow) quarantine for 14 days. More details about that are forthcoming, and we will advise on the impact on our students and families from those areas as soon as we can.

Safe and healthy dining on campus is not only an important part of maintaining individual health, but also an important part of building community. Chartwells, our dining partner, is committed to the safety and well-being of our campus community, guests, and associates. Their practices will include daily wellness checks by associates and delivery drivers, increased sanitizing and disinfecting, the wearing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), extensive associate training, and informational signage. We are working with Chartwells to create a plan for our dining facilities that ensures compliance with CDC, local, and state guidelines. We will share more details about meal plans and dining options in the coming weeks, but you can anticipate a variety of to-go options and staffed stations with more limited seating within the dining venues.

We will insist upon physical distancing and face coverings consistently, and we will limit the size of gatherings and events, whether indoor or outdoor.

We are thinking creatively about how to make the most of our on-campus experience together (while also engaging with those who can’t join us in person) and to allow for safe campus activities, student employment, and more.

Athletics are an integral part of the Trinity experience. The NCAA has proposed a phased return to sports that depends on the virus not resurging on college campuses. Our own conference, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) has stated:

Athletics engagement is an important part of the experience for many of our students, and member institutions remain committed to this experience.  However, this will not be a traditional fall on campus in any respect, including for athletics. The conference continues to develop plans for the return to athletics …”

But it’s clear that the fall (and likely winter) season of athletic competition will not occur as usual. We will have significantly fewer, if any, competitions in the fall, but we are aiming for physically distanced practices for in and out-of-season sports and activities to engage our athletes. Our Athletics Department (administrators and coaches alike) has been extremely creative in determining how to engage scholar-athletes during this non-traditional fall season. And we are grateful that their creativity is also informing how to gradually return to other close contact activities, such as dance. We will keep you informed over the summer, as plans for athletics continue to take shape.

It is our collective responsibility to care for this community—at all times, including during a pandemic. Everyone on campus will be required to follow important health and safety practices and protocols, the most fundamental of which are:

• Face coverings/masks
• Physical distancing (including reduced sizes of social gatherings)
• Frequent handwashing
• Self-monitoring for symptoms
• Mandatory public health education

If each of us commits to those fundamentals, we can go a long way toward keeping our community safe. For all those arriving on campus, we will provide detailed guidance about those fundamentals—when exactly those face coverings are necessary, what kind of face coverings are acceptable, what we mean by physical distancing and in what situations, how people should monitor for symptoms, and what to do if they experience them or test positive.

Similar to our peer institutions, Trinity wll require students to sign a Community Responsibility Agreement—which the college is developing in partnership with our Student Government Association and Inter-Greek Council—that will reinforce the need for students to be vigilant in following public health guidance and college policies regarding COVID-19. We also will limit unnecessary travel off campus for students to limit the risk of exposure and transmission of COVID-19.

Students and employees will be tested for COVID-19 on a regular basis throughout the semester. The precise method, scope, and frequency of that testing is to be determined as state recommendations are changing frequently.  We are committed to exceed the minimum testing recommendations from the state, because we know that regular testing is one critical component to monitoring the health of our community and containing the virus if it is detected.

All who come to campus, including faculty and staff, will be required to do daily symptom checks and asked not to report to campus if they are experiencing symptoms.

Earlier in the spring, we established protocols for quarantine, isolation, and contact tracing to address cases of the virus or direct exposure to it. We will expand upon and enhance those plans for the fall, with a team of Trinity College health staff and others trained to conduct contact tracing.

We are enhancing cleaning and sanitizing across campus; hand sanitizer will be available at entrances to buildings, classrooms, and dining halls. Disposable wipes and cleaning solutions will be available in all bathrooms, classrooms, and shared facilities, and supplies will be provided so that staff and faculty may clean and sanitize their offices and workspaces.

Classrooms, dining halls, and activity spaces are being reconfigured to allow for appropriate physical distancing (reducing classroom density significantly).

Based on the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in consultation with our emergency operations groups, we will follow guidelines provided by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers to review and confirm compliance of our HVAC systems across buildings, and remediate or not use spaces that do not comply.