Creighton Joins Four Other Universities To Conduct Early Fall Semester Schedule

OMAHA–(KFOR May 19)–Creighton University will be among five major universities across the country that plan to start fall semester classes in August, but end the semester before Thanksgiving.

Speaking on CNN Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, Creighton’s president, said, “We certainly don’t think we can out-smart the pandemic but we think we are poised to provide a safe learning environment.”

Rev. Hendrickson also said the decision was based on the timing and anticipation of the cold and flu season starting in late November and early December.

“That will be confusing for any of us to try and understand who’s sick and what do they have,” said Hendrickson.

If there is a resurgence of COVID-19 and a pandemic returns during that same time period, Hendrickson says there are alternative plans, which includes going virtual for learning.

“We learned how to do it very quickly without a lot of notice,” Hendrickson said.  “We’ve asked our faculty and staff to be able to go virtual and online very quickly, if we need to do so again.”  Creighton went to virtual learning for the remainder of the spring semester back on March 23.

Notre Dame, Rice, Purdue and the University of South Carolina are joining Creighton in going to the early fall semester schedule.