Rutgers will hold most of its fall classes online, the university said Monday.
"I am writing today to inform you that after careful consideration of all possible models for safely and effectively delivering instruction during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Rutgers is planning for a Fall 2020 semester that will combine a majority of remotely delivered courses with a limited number of in-person classes," the university's new president Jonathan Holloway wrote Monday.
"Because of the ongoing requirements for social distancing and guided by our paramount priority of safeguarding the people of our university community, we determined that most courses this fall will have to rely on remote methods of instruction—delivered both in real-time and asynchronously," he said.
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Holloway also said on-campus housing would be "extremely limited" for the fall. No decisions have been made yet, he added, about winter and spring terms.
The move follows a similar change of course by other large universities around the country, some of which had hoped to fully reopen for fall but reconsidered in light of rising COVID-19 infections.
Last week, the new president of New Jersey’s flagship university cut his salary by 10%, citing the school's ongoing financial issues related to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Holloway made the announcement Wednesday, his first day on the job.
Rutgers faces a projected $250 million financial hit next school year due to the pandemic and has laid off hundreds of employees. The university also wants to freeze scheduled pay increases for workers.
Holloway was named the university's president in January. He was due to make nearly $1.2 million in the next school year as part of a compensation package that includes a house, a car and other perks.
Before accepting the Rutgers job, Holloway had been the provost at Northwestern University since 2017 and previously was a dean at Yale. He is an historian and author specializing in African American studies.
Holloway, 52, succeeds Robert Barchi, who had led Rutgers since September 2012.
