St. Francis Xavier University announced Friday that it’ll be welcoming students back to the StFX campus for the fall semester, beginning Sept. 14.
In a statement, the Antigonish, N.S., university said it will be offering a mixed-method course delivery, with most classes taking place in person and some being offered online.
“This is a decision that comes after much careful planning and deliberation,” StFX said.
“The safety and wellbeing of our students, staff, and faculty, as well as the members of our Town and County of Antigonish, is our top priority and will remain so as we welcome our community back to campus.”
According to the university, its plans regarding faculty, students and staff returning to campus in September were developed and presented to the province and public health for review.
These plans included protocols related to StFX’s physical spaces, logistics and movement on campus to ensure social distancing can be maintained, to practices relating to new cleaning and disinfecting standards consistent with the guidelines issued by public health.
“It will take the effort of the entire community to ensure our collective health and safety. Therefore, new behavioural standards and expectations of our community have been developed and will be shared in the days and weeks ahead,” said the university.
StFX also announced that all domestic students, living on or off-campus, who are coming from outside of Nova Scotia will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.
“This requirement may be altered in the coming weeks but remains the standard of practice today.”
Students planning to live in residence and travelling from out of province will be contacted in July by university housing to schedule their arrival time on Aug. 30 or 31, two weeks before the official beginning of the fall term.
Students planning to live in residence and not requiring self-isolation will be contacted in July to schedule their arrival date between Sept. 10 and 13.
The university also noted that off-campus students travelling from outside the province must make arrangements to arrive in Antigonish so that their self-isolation period will end by the start of classes on Monday, Sept. 14.
“All off-campus students will be required to submit a health and travel declaration form to Student Life prior to arriving to Antigonish and will be required to check in at a designated, central location,” said StFX.
“Please be prepared should it be necessary for StFX to schedule your arrival and move-in dates in advance.”
The university warned that failure to follow the health and safety guidelines throughout the academic year may result in expulsion from the university.