MSU Fall semester to begin August 17

As Mississippi State University prepares for the 2020 Fall Semester, the university’s guiding principle has been structuring the critical balance between protecting the health and safety of our MSU family while likewise ensuring that we continue to deliver the high quality academic experiences that our students expect and deserve.

That principle guides us as we transition to a return to more traditional university operations including guidelines to resume in-person classroom and laboratory instruction for the Fall 2020 Semester. Specific guidelines are evolving as guidance from federal and state authorities likewise evolves.

With that in mind, MSU Provost David Shaw announced today that MSU’s 2020 Fall Semester will begin on Monday, August 17 and end with commencement for MSU-Meridian on Tuesday Dec. 1. MSU will issue a more complete 2020 Fall schedule soon.

“We are eliminating Fall Break in an effort to make the semester as compact as possible and to limit mass travel-and-return activity that could escalate the spread of COVID-19,” said Shaw. “This is in keeping with the policies adopted by the vast majority of our peer institutions.”

The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning adopted a resolution stating the board’s intention that all public universities resume traditional operations on their campuses in the Fall 2020 Semester.