COLLEGES devise strategy for year.

More Arkansas colleges have released plans for students returning to campuses this fall, while testing and contact-tracing protocols remain under development.

The plans cover a lot of territory, while also zeroing in on some of the most menial aspects of college life.

At Lyon College in Batesville, for example, students will have assigned bathrooms to limit their exposure to one another.

The plans are critical to establishing how the campuses will operate safely as cases of covid-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — continue to rise by the hundreds each day in Arkansas.

They’re being formed as public health officials continue to provide virus information to schools, and other health-care authorities only recently published their guidance.

One prominent guidance plan comes from Open Smart EDU, published by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and Tuscany Strategy Consulting.

The 98-page report notes four major questions that schools should ask before opening: whether the institution has sufficient

health supplies and protocols, whether it has the financial resources to address challenges that could arise, whether it has a quality academic plan to ensure that degree requirements and academic progress are met, and whether it has developed the management and oversight to navigate operations during a pandemic.

Last week, several colleges announced at least partial academic, housing and general campus protocols. At Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, students who twice refuse to wear face coverings will be unregistered for the semester. Greek recruitment will be at least partly virtual, and faculty office hours will be entirely virtual.

At Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, small study rooms and some laundry rooms will be limited to one person at a time, and resident students must sign up for move-in times to limit congestion on move-in days. Students can still check out equipment, such as pingpong sets, and they’ll be sanitized between uses.

Arkansas State University’s plan calls for 20 classrooms with the capability to livestream courses, identifying high-risk students, making appointments for most student services and limiting bathroom sharing to allow for social distancing.

At the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, parts of campus — such as bathrooms and other smaller spaces — will be designated “quiet zones.” “Individuals should refrain from conversations in these areas,” the university’s plan says, in an effort to reduce the potential for the coronavirus to spread.

Last week, Lyon College unveiled a return-to-campus plan that restricts bathroom access and limits dormitory visitors and the number of people in common spaces. Instructors will develop course instruction that can be accessed by students unable to attend class, except in the case of courses with performance or laboratory elements that require in-person observation.

How to conduct such courses has been tricky since the spring semester, when colleges abruptly shifted to remote instruction after Arkansas’ first covid-19 cases.

University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Chancellor Terisa Riley said faculty members at her school have come up with innovative ideas for conducting courses in the event they fall ill, or if they or a family member are vulnerable to covid-19.

In those instances, instructors could ask another qualified instructor to oversee any kind of competency exam for a hands-on skill in programs like dental hygiene. Or, they could have an instructor or graduate assistant film a student performing a task for the instructor to watch and evaluate remotely.

Not included in plans are efforts that colleges have outlined in statements to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette or noted in internal correspondence obtained by the newspaper that seek to address everyday challenges to education access during a pandemic.

At least UAFS, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas are exploring increasing the number of laptops available for students who don’t have their own computers or the programming required by their courses.

Riley said she’s looking at laptops for those students to check out. Increased technology to do coursework increases the need for wireless internet, she noted. The university and area kindergarten-through-12th-grade school districts are discussing pooling their money and creating more Wi-Fi hot spots for all their students to use.

Colleges’ plans aren’t all complaint- or concern-free.

At UALR, students, faculty and staff members have expressed concern about the campus opening.

One student said his only option, if compelled to take in-person courses this fall, is to take a break from his studies, because he lives with his elderly, high-risk grandfather.

In late June, a university academic committee recommended to UALR Chancellor Christina Drale that the campus continue remote-only instruction, citing high covid-19 case projections.

University of Arkansas System trustees directed campuses to have in-person instruction this fall, a directive that would need to be amended or rescinded if a campus were to deliver courses only remotely.

In recent weeks, UALR staff senate leaders have been among those expressing concerns about reopening. They cite the number of high-risk staff members and recent incidents on campus where people were not social distancing.

On Friday, staff senate president Cody Henslee said Drale had addressed staff concerns by revising the campus reopening plan to emphasize mask-wearing and giving employees more flexibility to work with their departments on devising a personalized plan for returning to work.

Last week, several colleges announced at least partial academic, housing and general campus protocols.