In an interview with CNN Wednesday night, Northeastern Universitys president reiterated that the school will welcome students back to its campus in Boston this fall but business as usual is not going to make it happen.

Describing the process as the new normal," Joseph Aoun detailed how the university plans to bring students back to campus while others in the city like Boston College havent made a decision yet and first-year students at Harvard Medical School will learn online.

Every department in every university and every university has a different context and different circumstances," Aoun said. "We have been working with other peers, not only in Boston, but in the nation as well. The Chronicle of Higher Education has announced that 70% of the colleges and universities have the goal to reopen in the fall. We are not outliers. But once again we have to do it in a different way.

Updated numbers as of Wednesday from The Chronicle of Higher Educations database show that 65% of colleges and universities in the country are planning for on-campus learning in the fall. Many in Massachusetts have yet to come to a decision, though, according to the database.

Aoun said in order to have the 37,000 students back on campus in the fall, the university has to rethink every aspect of what it has done in the past. Northeastern is looking how to lower density of classrooms, labs and dorms.

Aoun said during the interview with CNN, the university secured 2,000 additional beds to lower density in the dorms.

The school will also look at athletic events differently, although Auoun didnt provide specifics.

Its is going to be a rethink of the whole operation in order to ensure our that our students, our faculty, our staff and our community at large is safe and secure, Auon said.

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Northeastern president says school will rethink whole operation in order to brings students back in fall - MassLive.com