Students attending the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will have the choice between in-person and virtual classes for the upcoming fall semester, officials announced.

Classes start Aug. 23, and changes are already in place to manage the volume of people on campus, according to UTRGV Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Patrick Gonzalez.

“We are encouraging our faculty who have chosen to conduct classes face-to-face this semester to switch to hybrid,” Gonzalez said. “Either for the remainder of the semester or for the next few weeks, as we continue to monitor the delta variant.”

Gonzalez says UTRGV will continue to monitor the pandemic before in-person lectures resume.

“We hope this isn’t for the entire semester,” Gonzalez said. “Hopefully, if things get better, we can move them back to campus.”