College activity should resume in steps
Report says they need to be ready to close again if flareup occurs
As Connecticut colleges and universities hone plans to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the watchword is flexibility.
Institutions of higher education should prepare to welcome students back to class but also be ready to revert to online learning if the disease flares up, a subcommittee of Gov. Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group recommends in a report issued Wednesday.
Subcommittee members, including the co-chairmen — Richard Levin, president emeritus of Yale University, and Linda Koch Lorimer, a former Yale vice president — later discussed the report during Lamont’s daily news briefing on the state’s response to the coronavirus.
Some college research programs could restart as early as May 20, the date Lamont has set for a partial reopening of businesses, while undergraduate residential programs could open Sept. 1, according to the report. In between, nonresidential workforce programs at community colleges and laboratory courses could resume early next month and other nonresidential programs could get going in July and August.
The recommendations call for individual institutions to develop reopening plans that include provisions for testing faculty, staff and students for COVID-19; containing the spread of the disease; and ultimately closing again, if necessary.
“It is entirely possible that even if conditions warranting reopening obtain in June, a new wave of infections after the reopening of businesses might strain hospital capacity by late August,” the report says. “It is also possible that conditions warrant reopening in August but the pandemic worsens in the fall to the extent that the Governor would order a new shutdown.”
Lamont reported Wednesday that 374 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the state, raising the total since the outbreak began to 30,995. Eighty-five more deaths over the previous 24 hours brought the number of total fatalities to 2,718.
Hospitalizations, the metric Lamont has most closely focused on, fell to 1,445, a decrease of 55. He had reported an increase in hospitalizations Tuesday after 12 straight days of declines.
“What we saw yesterday was I hope just a one-day blip,” he said.
Results of an additional 2,800 COVID-19 tests were collected, with 13% of them positive for the disease, the governor said, calling it another “good sign” that the May 20 reopening date was intact.
In New London County, the number of COVID-19 cases grew to 704, while the number of deaths associated with the disease climbed to 47. Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London was treating 24 coronavirus patients and Westerly Hospital was treating one. Backus Hospital in Norwich had eight.
Acknowledging the “tension between safety and getting reopened,” Levin said the subcommittee on higher education recommends a phased approach that recognizes that undergraduates who live on campuses are at greater risk than graduate students and those enrolled in nonresidential programs.
The subcommittee recommends the governor adopt a series of “gating conditions” that colleges must meet to reopen. They include low and non-increasing rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state and in the community surrounding each college, and adequate supplies of the materials needed to test for the disease.
“Residential institutions must test all students upon arrival and at appropriate intervals thereafter,” the report says.
The state should provide institutions with adequate supplies of personal protective equipment and capacity for contact tracing, and adopt specific guidelines on the wearing of face masks, physical distancing and the allowable density of people in dormitories, dining halls and classrooms, the subcommittee recommends.
The state also should protect institutions from the threat of lawsuits that could arise from students becoming infected with COVID-19, it recommends.
While some have speculated that the pandemic's effects might cause fewer new students to pursue college in the fall, with many perhaps opting instead for a “gap” year, educators who participated in the briefing said they have not seen evidence of that. University of Connecticut President Thomas Katsouleas said UConn was braced for a reduction in the number of newly committed students who faced a May 1 deadline for deposits.
“We were pleasantly surprised that our deposits this year were up by 17% over last year,” he said. “Students who are coming back are thirsty to come back.”