Face masks, hand sanitizer and limits to who lives in the dorms

Education unions make suggestions for colleges returning to classrooms

Florida’s colleges and universities should provide hand sanitizer in every classroom, require face masks, use a mix of in-person and online classes and consider limiting dormitories to just freshmen and seniors when they reopen campuses, according to recommendations released Wednesday by two statewide education unions. The schools should also make sure all students have laptops and internet access, providing them at no cost when necessary, and boost mental health services on their campuses, the recommendations said.

The 13-page report by the United Faculty of Florida and the Florida Education Association offers numerous suggestions for how campuses, largely shuttered since March to stop the spread of the coronavirus, can reopen safely for the fall semester.

And it urges state leaders not to reduce funding for the state’s higher education system, despite Florida’s economic downturn, because that will damage institutions that are “an economic engine for our state.”

Union leaders said they compiled the report, the work of a 30-member task force, because they felt the state-appointed committees working on reopening plans “neglected to include a lot of the actual stakeholders, ” said Karen Morian, UFF’s president, in a statement.

The union group included students, parents and faculty members, among others. Morian said she hoped those people would be listened to as state groups move to “develop the best plans possible for a safe and successful fall semester.”

The report was sent to the State Board of Education, which oversees state colleges, and the Board of Governors, which oversees the universities, said Joni Branch, a spokeswoman for the education association, in an email. It was also sent to faculty members who are part of UFF, who can use the recommenda

tions to work with their schools, she said.

Colleges and universities are already working on their reopening plans, with those for the 12 universities due to the state by June 12.

Once open, the coronavirus means institutions will need rules, and equipment, “to test, trace, and isolate new cases on campus,” the union said.

The recommendations also include disinfecting classrooms daily, putting in touch-less locks and retooling water fountains so they have spouts for water bottles. The unions also want signs to help keep people 6 feet apart and rules to require face masks “until a vaccine becomes available,” with the schools providing the masks to anyone who needs them.

Florida’s colleges and universities should stagger student attendance for in-person classes to help with “proper social distancing,” the report said, and more classes should be a “hybrid” model that combines online and inperson instruction, it added. The report also suggested that freshmen be able to “live on-campus to better integrate to college life” as well as seniors and graduate students so they

could “be mentored by faculty as they complete their degrees.”

But, under that scenario, sophomores and juniors would be “online only,” it said.

The board of governors has already approved broad reopening guidelines that urge universities to develop plans that address the use of face masks and coronavirus testing, while relying on a “shared responsibility” from students and employees to follow social distancing rules. The board is to take up the universities’ plans at its June 23 meeting.

The University of Central Florida has said its reopening plan could include an altered calendar, one that would end oncampus classes and activities at Thanksgiving and then move instruction online for the final weeks of the semester. That schedule would lessen the risk of virus spread, officials hope, because because students and faculty would not be traveling for the holiday and then returning to campus.

Valencia College will offer mostly online classes in the fall but will open campuses for classes that are difficult to do if students do not gather in person, said Carol Traynor, a college spokeswoman, in an email.