On Friday, March 12, President Mike Fitts sent out an email with plans for Tulane to return to normal operation for the fall 2021 semester.

“We are planning to host a fall semester in which most of the COVID-19 protocols are no longer necessary and the campus experience looks very much like pre-pandemic semesters,” Fitts said in the email.

The email outlines plans for a return to majority in-person-only classes, with the exception of online degree courses and some other limited digital offerings. Tulane also plans to have classrooms and other facilities to return to their pre-COVID-19 capacities. 

Fitts attributed this news to the COVID-19 vaccines, which are becoming rapidly more accessible in the Tulane community and throughout the country as a whole.

“One of the most important factors for returning to ‘normalcy’ will be the vaccination rate of our community,” Fitts said. 

Tulane also plans to return to standard classroom operations and to phase out of remote work, which were implemented for safety purposes at the beginning of the pandemic. These changes may be implemented throughout the course of spring, and almost certainly by fall 2021.

Fitts finished off his email by thanking the Tulane community for their efforts during the past year and asked the community to continue with these efforts for a few more months.