BATON ROUGE – After a long holiday break, LSU's spring semester began Monday.

“I’m excited to just get back into school and get better grades this semester,” freshman Isabelle Hallmark said.

Half of the classes will be held in-person, the other half online.

“I have three online classes, and then I have one French class that is four days a week in-person,” freshman Adrien Foley said.

That French class will be Foley’s first in-person class at the university.

“I think I’ll definitely get more learning in with the in-person class, but it might be harder to figure out time-wise what to do,” Foley said.

Similar COVID-related restrictions have carried over into the spring. Masks are required, and people will have to continue social distancing inside buildings.

Students did not have to get tested for the virus before returning, though testing is very much encouraged. There are three places to do so this, semester all available on a daily basis: the Student Union, Coates Hall and the Student Health Center. There will be incentives to get more students tested.

“They're giving out different prizes like AirPods and an Apple Watch. So with that I think people will be more encouraged to get tested,” freshman Jordyn Arabie said.

“I’m pretty optimistic for the next semester. I'm hoping that none of my classes will be online, but all I can do is just hope at this point,” sophomore Charles Landry said.

LSU says it will continue their waste-water testing to see if there are any hot spots popping up, and will do random mandatory testing every two weeks.

“We are in the home stretch of the pandemic, but in the meantime, please keep wearing your masks, continue to maintain six feet of physical distance whenever possible, and keep washing your hands thoroughly and often," interim President Tom Galligan said in a letter to students.