Students at Slippery Rock University will continue to take 80% of their instruction online in the spring semester.

William Behre, SRU president, announced Thursday that the mode of instruction currently in place during the fall semester would continue in the spring.

“While I'm grateful to everyone for being mindful of our current situation, now is not the time to let our guard down,” Behre said in a letter sent to students, faculty and staff. “This is the time that we should double down on our efforts to keep our campus and community as COVID-free as possible.”

As in the current semester, the spring semester will be conducted with an 80/20 split of online to in-person instruction, Behre said.

“We understand this continued approach is not necessarily what many people wish would happen, myself included,” he said, “but it is one that has proven to work as evidenced by our low case count.”

He said the move would also meet the university's top priority of protecting the health and safety of the school's students, faculty and staff.

“It is our continued adherence to mitigation efforts that will hopefully help us return to our pre-pandemic methods of operation in fall 2021,” Behre said.

The overlap of COVID-19 and flu season, which experts expect will complicate diagnoses and place an added burden on the health care system, is a major concern that helped drive the decision to remain online for the spring semester.

“Under these conditions, more on-campus activity would certainly overwhelm our university's ability to provide health care and safe, disinfected learning environments,” Behre said.

Should conditions related to the pandemic improve, Behre said a discussion would take place among officials regarding the science surrounding the pandemic as well as the university's ability to switch over to in-person instruction.

“I'm continually inspired by the collective resolve of our students, faculty and staff to overcome the recent challenges, which gives me greater confidence that we will meet whatever demands that lie ahead of us and that we will succeed together,” Behre said.