Becker joins local colleges changing to online only

Photo | Grant Welker Spruce Hall on Becker College's Worcester campus

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By Grant Welker

Becker College in Worcester has become the third in the city this week to say it is shifting classes online for the fall semester as worries mount about rising coronavirus cases in Massachusetts and travel restrictions in place from those coming from many other states.

Becker said late Wednesday it will hold the entirety of the fall semester online with no residential component for students.

Becker President Nancy Crimmin said the college has a duty to protect the health and safety of residents living in Worcester and Leicester, where it has campuses, particularly because of its fairly high commuter student body.

"As disappointing as we know this is for students and their families, we have grown increasingly concerned about worsening conditions across the country and in our area, seemingly insurmountable challenges in testing and quarantine for students and families coming to campus from high-risk states, predictions there will be a second wave of the virus in late summer to early fall, and continued cautionary guidance from the state and public health officials," Crimmin said.

Becker joins College of the Holy Cross, which said Monday it would abandon plans for holding classes on campus through Thanksgiving and instead have the entire semester online. Only limited exceptions will be made for students who need to be on campus for laboratory work, for example, or are international students unable to return home. Assumption University said later the same day it would begin the first two weeks of the semester online, with classes starting Aug. 17, before shifting to holding many classes on campus. Dean College in Franklin said in July it was also reversing course and choosing to hold all of its courses online.

Colleges in Central Massachusetts still planning on holding classes on campus, including Worcester Polytechnic Institutes and Clark University, are doing so with some courses online and with reduced dorm capacity, among other measures.

Nationally, colleges are leaning slightly more toward online offerings this fall, according to a data project at Davidson College in North Carolina.

Of colleges included in Davidson's database, 729 have said they'll operate primarily online, and 151 fully online. On the other side, 614 said they plan to be primarily in person, and 75 would be fully in person. More than 400 are taking what's described as a hybrid approach with online and in-person components, and 771 have yet to determine their course of action.