FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, December 10, 2020<\/p>\n
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University’s plan for the spring features a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from a remarkable year. Knowledge to help keep its campuses safe, and experience to guide students through difficult times.<\/p>\n
“It has been a year like no other,” said university President James Hurley. “Yet the Tarleton family has proven that Texans know how to handle difficult challenges and find ways to thrive in a pandemic. I am extremely proud of how our students, faculty and staff have united to protect and continue to grow our One Tarleton community.”<\/p>\n
Tarleton began its fall 2020 semester with more than 14,000 students, the largest enrollment in school history and a 6.5 percent increase over 2019. The semester officially ends with in-person graduation exercises Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11 and 12, at Memorial Stadium. A virtual celebration is planned in case of inclement weather.<\/p>\n
Registration for the 2021 spring semester is underway, and when classes start Jan. 19, courses again will be offered via three delivery modes — face-to-face, hybrid\/HyFlex and online.<\/p>\n
SSC, the university’s custodial partner, will continue to sanitize offices and common spaces daily. Students, faculty, staff and visitors will be required to wear face coverings unless in a private office or residence hall room. Hand sanitizing stations will be located around campus, and signs throughout the university will remind the Tarleton family to observe safety protocols.<\/p>\n
In addition, COVID-19 testing will continue, and isolation housing is ready for students who test positive and cannot return home.<\/p>\n
Athletic competitions will resume with strict COVID-19 precautions for players, coaches and fans.<\/p>\n
Tarleton’s 2020-21 men’s and women’s basketball season, its first in NCAA Division I, began Nov. 25 with low-capacity seating and single-game, general-admission tickets to make physical distancing easier. When conditions allow, capacity restrictions will be lifted, permitting larger crowds inside Wisdom Gym.<\/p>\n
Football begins with a Feb. 13 home game against McNeese State and includes the March 20 Homecoming battle against former Lone Star Conference rival Midwestern State.<\/p>\n
Tarleton tennis begins Jan. 16 at TCU, and volleyball is scheduled to start Jan. 22, when the Texans take on Louisiana Tech and Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches.<\/p>\n
Other spring sports schedules will be announced later.<\/p>\n
The university is committed to serving all students and the community, as detailed in its long-term strategic plan, currently being crafted.<\/p>\n
“Developing a future-focused strategic plan for the next decade is exciting and critically important,” Dr. Hurley said. “We are all experiencing challenges we’ve never had before, but we don’t want those around us to define our future. We don’t want circumstances to define our future. For us, strategically, we have to think about becoming a ‘first choice’ institution in this region.”<\/p>\n
Hurley was in Las Vegas at the Western Athletic Conference postseason basketball tournament in early March when organizational cancellations caused by the pandemic began across the country.<\/p>\n
“We really didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “Our faculty and staff were the true heroes at Tarleton. We scurried back and we had to make decisions, the first being to extend spring break by a week to give us time for our faculty to totally flip their curriculum to a virtual platform.<\/p>\n
“They did an outstanding job. What I saw in all of this was the true Tarleton family that everyone told me I would see.”<\/p>\n
Dr. James Gentry, Director of Instructional Development and Course Design for the university’s Center for Educational Excellence, was in on the ground floor of the switch to virtual learning.<\/p>\n
“We’re always going to do what is right by our students to help them meet their goals,” he said. “As faculty, we’re committed to our students, we’re going to listen to our students, and we’re going to do everything we can to create a 2021 learning environment that provides the best education possible.”<\/p>\n
Watch for spring 2021 updates on Tarleton’s Roadmap<\/a> website, and keep up with Tarleton athletics at www.tarletonsports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 14,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.<\/p>\n Contact: Tarleton State University’s plan for the spring features a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from a remarkable year. Knowledge to help keep its campuses safe, and experience to guide students through difficult times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,425,427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","category-science-health"],"acf":{"image":null},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/10\/Spring-Flowers-Admin-Gates_7545-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>","Science & Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>","Science & Health<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 10, 2020","modified":"Updated on September 23, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 10, 2020 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 23, 2025 8:40 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Tarleton State University entrance with flags and flowers.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53926,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855\/revisions\/53926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
254-968-1620<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"