After over a year of distance learning, WSU Pullman is opening its classrooms next fall with hopes of having 80 percent of classes in person. 

WSU administration wants the maximum number of in-person experiences for students, university registrar Matthew Zimmerman said. 

“It’s part of the college experience and it seems that students do better with in-person instruction,” he said.  

The goal is for most classes to be held either entirely in person or in a hybrid model. Zimmerman said smaller classes like labs and major-focused courses will be in person.   

Only 5 percent of classes will be completely virtual, Zimmerman said. The university is planning for courses with over 100 students to be online.

The WSU Office of the Registrar is allowing professors to teach larger classes using the hybrid model, he said.

“If a classroom can hold 33 students with social distancing, but the class itself has 90 students, it would be up to the instructor to develop a plan to rotate the students in and out of the classroom,” he said.

While the office does play a role in creating plans for classes next semester, the decision ultimately rests on college department heads to decide how many students they will allow in the classroom, Zimmerman said. 

For more information about scheduling and in-person classes, students can visit the office’s in-person class search, which allows students to see whether their courses in the fall will be face-to-face.