Slippery Rock University's campus will look different in the fall with fewer people, but that is intentional.

SRU President William Behre told SRU trustees, who met virtually on Thursday, that students will return to campus in the fall using a hybrid of in-person and distance learning.

“I say that with about 1,000 asterisks,” Behre said. “If the pandemic shifts between now and August, we may have to shift back to a distance mode.”

Behre made an announcement Friday giving the university's students, faculty and community a broad sense of what the fall will look like. He said further details are still being evaluated and planned.

Behre said the university is currently looking at which classes could be done where in-person students and distance learners are synchronized to the same course load and timeline. He said some coursework between the two forms of learning will be synchronous while others will not. He said some classes will have to be shifted entirely to virtual learning.

Behre said SRU's return will look similar to that of other universities across the state because of guidance issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We wanted to make sure our plans were consistent with that,” he said.

One specific difference for next year's fall semester will be in the academic calendar. SRU students will start the fall semester one week early and end classes just before Thanksgiving without their typical break in October.

Behre said by eliminating the break in October, it limits the chance students would have to contract and spread the virus.

In addition to addressing classes, administrators are also evaluating thinning their population housed on campus. Typically all freshmen, even locals, spend their first year living on campus with some exceptions. The university's enrollment for this past fall was just over 8,800 students.

“We may be at a point where we would tell a student who we would require to stay on campus that they may have to commute,” Behre said. “In terms of turning down admission, that will not be the case.”

Molly Mercer, SRU's chief financial officer, said it is too early to understand the full financial impacts of the hybrid return plans.

“Like everything, it's going to be something we assess in the weeks ahead as the plans fill out,” she said.

The university stands to see a net loss of more than $3 million due to the coronavirus. SRU's affiliates stand to lose a net value of around $4 million for a combined total of around $7 million in lost funding.

The preliminary budget of $148.7 million for SRU's 2020-21 fiscal year also showed a $4.4 million deficit.

Mercer said the university continues to review in an effort to improve its budget. She said some open positions may remain unfilled until the pandemic dissipates and its effects weaken. She added that bargaining groups, including the school's faculty, staff and other professional employees, have been understanding of the situation.

“Everyone is being very collaborative and positive and wanting to work together to come up with plans to reduce costs and reach our goals,” Mercer said.

She further noted the state allocation of funding toward the university's budget will prove helpful. The funding will include a portion of an additional $30 million allocated to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for COVID-related costs.

“That will certainly help us defray some of these items,” she said.

According to Mercer, the combined effort in all of these areas will help make the university more efficient. “Those will help bring down that deficit,” Mercer said.

As some students return to campus and others turn to their computers for learning, Behre said it will be important for the SRU community to remember that they are together.

“Slippery Rock is an extraordinary community,” Behre said. “There's a sense that this community really looks out for each other and sticks together.”