COVID-19: Summer camps and summer events
April 6, 2020 10:02 AM

Dear Members of the University Community,

To ensure that we keep our university community and visitors safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and to return to normal business as soon as it is safe to do so, we have made the decision to cancel all university summer camps through July 10, 2020 and all summer events until further notice. We have waited as long as possible to make this decision, and we know it will have impacts on families throughout the state and beyond, as well as businesses that provide support and services to our university community year after year. But the safety and well-being of our Illinois family and our guests is always our number one priority.

Camps

• As you know, the state of Illinois is under a stay-at-home directive to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We do not know when it will be safe to resume in-person activities, and camps require time for planning and logistics, so we cannot wait any longer to make this decision.
• We define camps as organized daily or residential recreational, academic or athletic offerings on campus or sponsored by the university, at any location, for young people during summer vacation.
• All camps scheduled to begin before July 10 are canceled. (Illinois Extension has made the decision to cancel all summer camps through at least July 31.)
• We will make a decision about camps currently scheduled to begin after that date as soon as possible.

Events

• We have cancelled all events through the end of the semester, May 16.
• We are following State of Illinois guidance on gatherings, so no summer events will be held until the statewide stay-at-home directive expires.
• We define summer events as organized activities sponsored by the university and/or held in university facilities that involve gatherings of small to large groups of people. Examples would include conferences, tournaments, weddings and concerts.
• Once the stay-at-home directive is lifted, any summer events must comply with social distancing and crowd limits as directed by the governor’s office. When this happens, we will provide more information about summer events protocols.

If you have additional questions about specific camps and programs, please contact either the camp’s organizers or the event’s hosting venue.

Thank you for your continued patience and kindness as we navigate these uncertain times.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor

Andreas C. Cangellaris
Provost