UW System schools to be open in fall
Questions remain; details worked on
The University of Wisconsin System said Sunday it expects all 13 of its campuses to be open and providing as much face-to-face instruction as possible this fall.
“We’re far enough along in our planning to say that we will provide in-person instruction this fall,” Rob Cramer, the system’s vice president for administration, said. “We’ve provided our universities with guidance and we are turning the decisions and announcements over to them now.”
But that doesn’t mean everyone will be back, or that everything will be back to normal. Questions still remain at each campus about housing, dining halls, the mix of classes that will be inperson vs. online, and how COVID-19 testing and tracing will be managed.
By the end of last week, a large portion of UW schools had already made independent announcements about reopening. UW-Whitewater did so on May 29. In the following days, others followed suit, including UW-Platteville, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior, UW-River Falls and UW-Oshkosh.
“We will be campus based,” UWPlatteville Chancellor Dennis Shields said Monday. “We haven’t made an announcement as to particulars of that but we thought it was important students and everyone know that’s the direction we’re going.”
They join private schools — including the state’s largest, Marquette University — in that decision. Milwaukee’s nearby tech colleges, the Milwaukee Area Technical College and Waukesha County Technical College, already have some students back this summer.
The state’s two largest campuses, UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, have held off making an announcement thus far.
At UW-Madison, a spokesman said the campus is “finalizing our plans and expect to make an announcement with
in the next week.” At UW-Milwaukee, Chancellor Mark Mone has talked generally about the extensive planning and preparations underway.
The guidelines released Sunday by the UW System include putting classes of more than 50 people online, having a plan if coronavirus cases surge and re-evaluating dorm operations including move-in, visitation and dining hall flow. Masks are recommended on campuses, especially indoors. Campuses have also been told to consider “cohorting groups of students,” for example, having students who share classes also live together in the dorms.
The guidelines are intentionally skeletal, Cramer said, leaving specific decisions to campus leaders. They could also change in response to how the coronavirus spreads in the state.
“If somebody doesn’t want to adhere to (guidelines), don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that makes them a bad person. It just means, maybe you don’t come to school here this fall.” UW-Platteville Chancellor Dennis Shields
Campuses trying to make it work
Chancellors say work on the campus level is ongoing, and they’re coordinating with their local health departments. A few campuses have hinted sports will be back in some form. In a virtual town hall with students, faculty and staff, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Dwight Watson and his team outlined a 200-plus page draft plan to reopen that campus in phases.
Most campuses say dorms will be open, and some chancellors plan to have them at capacity. While some campuses are waiving on-campus housing requirements for lower classes, others are leaving the rules in place, subject to case-by-case waivers. They’re setting aside isolation areas for people who get sick, where students could access their courses online and have food delivered to them.
At UW-Stout, the system’s polytechnic university, getting back to in-person learning is particularly important because of the number of hands-on, technical courses students take.
The university went into every single classroom to complete a density study, which helped determine what it would take to maintain social distancing.
Classrooms will be at 30% to 40% capacity on average. Traffic flow will be regulated. Everyone will be required to wear masks. In dining halls, student will see less self-service and more prepared and packaged meals. UW-Stout Chancellor Katherine Frank said they’ve even discussed setting up specific times for extended use of the communal bathrooms.
“That’s how nuanced the plan is,” Frank told the Journal Sentinel.
Frank said her university has set a budget $1 million for the added costs of reopening, though the actual cost could vary. That’s a significant cost to a campus of Stout’s size.
But so is the cost of not reopening, as campuses struggle with losses associated with this spring’s shutdown. According to data presented to the Board of Regents at the beginning of the month, the system is looking at a total loss of more than $100 million through the end of the summer, even taking into account federal money it got through the CARES Act.
On top of that, administrators are aware that students are wavering about returning to campus if they’re not going get some semblance of the college experience they’re paying for.
“We know the on-campus experience is what our students want,” UW System President Ray Cross said in a statement Sunday. “At the same time, we must all recognize that our universities will be different this fall than what we’re used to and there will be campusbased decisions on how to best address particular issues.”
Requirements about masks will vary
Health experts have warned of a second wave of coronavirus cases in the fall, prompting some private institutions to modify their academic calendars, starting in August and wrapping up the semester before Thanksgiving. Cross requested that option for the UW System, but early indications are that campus leaders won’t change their calendars at this point anyway.
Another major question, identified by health officials and academic leaders alike as crucial to reopening plans, will be testing and tracing students, faculty and staff,
“Testing may be the area that continues to evolve the most in terms of the technology and the recommendations we’re seeing,” Cramer said. “At this point, every one of our campuses is talking to public health officials locally about testing and tracing options.”
Requirements about wearing masks will vary.
They’ll be required on many campuses. Watson at UWWhitewater said his campus is still thinking about a requirement, and also about stocking masks in the student store.
At UW-Platteville, Shields said, “We’re not going to police people, but we’re going to say peer pressure and the concern of the whole community encourages everybody to participate in activities in a way that a makes sense.”
He didn’t mince his words about students who were unwilling to take restrictions seriously and work to protect those most vulnerable.
“If somebody doesn’t want to adhere to this, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that makes them a bad person. It just means, maybe you don’t come to school here this fall,” he said.
Individual concerns differ
The effect of all the uncertainty on students and staff showed in questions posed by some of the more than 420 people gathered on the video question-andanswer session with Watson.
One student expressed concerns about returning to in-person classes because of an immunocompromised family member back home. Would he or she still be able to get the necessary classes in?
A faculty member questioned the validity of social distancing.
“My cardiologist has said six feet really isn’t enough space to be entirely safe,” said the faculty member, who felt forced to chose between work and health. “If I’m teaching in a classroom, how will I be able to maintain six feet of distance?”
Watson reassured both that they’d work things out to everyone’s comfort level — including remote options for both students and faculty — and put health and safety first.
Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 or DAShastri@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DeviShastri.