The University of Oregon will return to predominantly in-person classes starting next  fall term, UO President Michael Schill announced Monday afternoon. 

The decision comes after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority’s announcement last Friday that colleges will be included in Phase 1B of the vaccination sequence, meaning that all faculty and staff needed to work on campus will be eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1. Hundreds of faculty have already been vaccinated due to their inclusion in Phase 1A, Schill said. 

The university has been working with local health authorities, the UO Incident Management Team and the UO Employee Safety Reopening Committee in preparation for reopening the campus. 

“I am under no illusion that life on campus will be what it was before COVID-19,” Schill wrote in the statement. “The virus is not going away. But now, we can be ready.”

The university will continue to enforce mask wearing, hand washing, social distancing and free COVID-19 testing through the UO’s Monitoring and Assessment Program. Schill said UO will announce more information about the vaccine and returning to campus in the coming weeks.