Augusta University fall break to coincide with Masters Tournament

Augusta University’s fall academic calendar will include a weeklong fall break Nov. 9-13 to coincide with the recently rescheduled Masters Tournament, said Augusta University Provost Gretchen Caughman in a virtual Town Hall meeting today.

To accommodate the additional days in November, fall classes will start on Monday, Aug. 10, two days earlier than originally scheduled. Those two additional days will then be combined with the two-day Fall Pause students normally receive in October and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to create a weeklong Fall Break without harming students academically.

“When Augusta National Golf Club announced the Masters Tournament would be held in November, we started to receive questions from students, faculty and staff about how Augusta University would operate,” Caughman said. “Faculty on our Academic Calendar Committee immediately went to work on a solution.”

Caughman said the plan has already received approval from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.

“I want to thank our provost, faculty and students for their ingenuity and flexibility,” Augusta University President Brooks A. Keel, PhD, said in follow up to the announcement. “These are unique times that call for out-of-the-box solutions, but we remain committed to doing the right thing for our students and our community.”

While dates for events like Freshman Convocation and Move-In Day are yet to be finalized, Caughman said a committee has been named to plan for the safe reopening of campus in the fall and is working through questions related to how the new start date will impact academic schedules for the Medical College of Georgia and The Dental College of Georgia, both of which operate year-round as opposed to a semester schedule like the university’s other colleges.

Earlier this month, the university received a $1 million donation from Augusta National Golf Club and the Community Foundation to increase COVID-19 testing capacity.

“We’re appreciative to our community partners for their support, and we want to offer our support to them in the best way we know how,” Keel said. “Many of our students and faculty rent their homes or work at the tournament. This is about more than Augusta University. It’s about our city and doing everything we can to support our students and faculty, our community partners and our economy.”