The University of Minnesota today unveiled the “Maroon and Gold Sunrise Plan”–a four-step process for how students living in university housing will return to campus and attend classes amid COVID-19. U of M President Joan Gabel says the school is providing “support for students during this period, will have activities for them to do, we will have incentives for them to comply, we’re striking the balance between something that feel imprisoning, we don’t want that, we want students to be able to enjoy campus life.” The four-step process includes limited on-campus activities, temporary curfews and mask-wearing and social distancing expectations. Gable says for step one “students will move into university housing for an average of 10 days depending on when they move in, they will be in sort of the dorm version of a stay-at-home order where they can leave to attend classes, to eat, to exercise, if they have to work, there are what I call ‘common sense’ exceptions.”The University will welcome residence hall students beginning on September 9th in Duluth, September 15th in the Twin Cities and September 18th in Rochester. The move-in dates were delayed on these campuses so officials would have more time to observe the experiences of other higher education institutions across the country that started their semesters with spikes in COVID-19 transmission.