The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘We need to work hard to keep colleges open’
Amid virus concerns, Lamont says semester can be safe if everyone helps
NEW BRITAIN — In the eye of a pandemic, state officials on Wednesday sought to calm nerves and assure the public that the fall semester for colleges and universities is still a go.
It was the first day of classes for a good number of colleges in the state, and Gov. Ned Lamont, surrounded by some of the top higher education officials in Connecticut, stood on the Central Connecticut State University campus to declare that the semester can be safe — but only with everyone’s help.
“I don’t want to be
Governor Killjoy,” said Lamont. “But we need to work hard to keep colleges open.”
He called it a complex task, guided by health protocols and reliant on
cooperation from everyone, particularly students.
The concerns were punctuated by a spike of positive COVID-19 tests in the city of Danbury which has forced Western Connecticut State University to start its semester totally on line, and clusters of positive tests showing up among students and staff returning to the University of Connecticut.
Last week, lawmakers from the legislature’s Higher Education Committee, after hearing concerns from faculty and students, penned a letter to Mark Ojakian, president of the Connecticut State College and University system, asking that more safety protocols be taken.
Their list included taking temperatures of all persons entering campus buildings, increasing flexibility in how classes are taught and increasing options for faculty and staff to work and teach virtually without the need to share private medical information.
On Wednesday, Patricia O’Nell, a psychology professor at Western and president of the Connecticut State UniversityAAUP, said she does not believe there is sufficient testing or screening being done.
Once on campus, only 10 percent of residential students will get randomly tested, O’Neill said. Staff, for instance, is expected to self-monitor and contact administration if they experience symptoms, according to information sent staff. Testing is not mentioned.
“There is no testing of faculty, staff, or commuter students. There are no screening measures in place for any of the universities,” said O’Neill. “I am at a loss as to why the students, faculty and staff at the CSU universities are being treated with less care than those of UConn.”
Ojakian, who is also co-chair of Lamont’s higher ed reopening task force, said Wednesday that reopening protocols in place are based on a set of common sense guidelines driven by public health data and science.
The reopening plan includes fewer in-person classes, more on-line offerings and many appointments held virtually. Everyone will be required to wear a mask and — as much as possible — stay six feet apart.
Students who live on campus will need to arrive with a negative test for the virus and will be randomly tested throughout the semester. Cleaning has been increased.
“I am confident that these moves ... can ensure a safe semester,” Ojakian said.
University of Connecticut President Tom Katsouleas said his re-entry plan is designed to protect students, staff and faculty.
Only 5,000 of some 12,000 beds on campus are being filled. Classrooms will be filled to one-third of capacity. Residential students were tested on arrival and those arriving from hot spot states were tested more than once.
However, UConn reported a new cluster of COVID-19 cases Wednesday, just hours after Lamont’s press conference.
The school reported it discovered 12 cases in Garrigus Suites after testing all of the nearly 270 students who live in the hall. The infected students have been moved into isolation, the school said.
UConn had reported eight positive COVID-19 tests out of the 5,000 residential students at the press conference, Katsouleas said.
“Compliance overall has been very good,” Katsouleas said. That despite an athletics department cluster and an on campus party that led to several students to be kicked off campus before classes even began.
In any other year, Katsouleas said, the gathering of about a dozen students would have been normal behavior. Instead, it was cause to send them home.
Since then, he said, the largest gathering he has seen on campus has been six people.
“They want to stay well and don’t want to go home,” Katsouleas said of students.
Acting Public Health Commissioner Deidre Gifford said it’s not just the large parties colleges have to worry about but also small gatherings where a lack of social distancing and maskwearing can lead to a spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Gifford said her department has worked closely with colleges and that higher education officials are paying attention.
There are isolation and quarantine spaces, dining facilities have become largely grab and go, and contact tracing protocols are at the ready when cases are identified.
“We will make changes to our recommendations and follow the science,” Gifford said.
She praised officials at WestConn for halting the re-population of dorms there until the peak of that outbreak has passed.
At the community college level, most courses will be offered fully online.
Duncan Harris, chief executive officer at Capitol Community College in Hartford, said his determination to make sure his campus opens safely is informed by his own experience. In March, he said, he came down with a cough and fever that felt different than anything he ever experienced. He tested positive for the virus.
“Our campus is ready,” Harris declared.
The reopening protocols also extend to the state’s 15 private colleges, said Rhona Free, president at St. Joseph’s College in Hartford.
There, students coming onto campus from socalled “hot spot” states go into quarantine for 14 days and are tested more than once.
The private colleges are also offering a mixture of remote, in-person and what they are calling “hiflex” classes.
Ojakian said he felt colleges will be able to stay open and that students and staff will remain on campus regardless of critics who have said it’s too early to open colleges or that students won’t follow the rules.
“I believe students will rise to the occasion and prove naysayers wrong,” said Ojakian.
If necessary, Lamont said, the state will change course if cases of COVID-19 spike.
“I don’t think education will ever be the same again for what we are going through now,” Lamont said. “Nothing is 100 percent safe but we are doing all can to keep it as safe as we can.”
lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck