SRU planning face-to-face classes for fall
Fall semester classes at Slippery Rock University will begin Aug. 23 with in-person classes in socially distant classrooms and capacity limits in dormitory rooms.
“I expect that we will still be wearing masks when we are together, and we may have to restrict very large gatherings, but we will be together, in person,” SRU President William Behre wrote in a letter to students last week.
He said the university's plans are based on the assumption most people will be vaccinated by the start of classes, but mitigation efforts, including mask wearing and on-campus COVID-19 testing, will be in place.
“We've always understood Slippery Rock students come to SRU for the face-to-face, in-person community experience. It's always been our goal to get back to that as soon as it's safe,” Behre said. “Slippery Rock is a face-to-face school. Our students want to go face to face. I overwhelmingly get messages from students wanting to go back to face to face.”
However, some online classes will be available, he said.
More than 80% of SRU's classes will be conducted face to face compared to the 20% currently offered.To accommodate more in-person classes, the university is increasing the number of rooms on campus that can safely host classes and adjusting learning spaces for social distancing.Behre said transparent plastic panels will be installed to separate students in labs and other classrooms where students can't be separated. Meeting rooms and even the ballroom could be used as classroom space if needed, he said.“We've gone through basically every classroom space on campus,” Behre said.He said the university also looked at off-campus sites such as churches for places to hold classes if necessary.Residence halls will operate at near capacity with no more than two students to a room.In a typical semester, 2,800 students live on campus. In contrast, that number plummeted to around 700 in the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. For this coming fall, the university is expecting more than 2,300 residents on campus.Behre said some dorm rooms will be set aside for use as quarantine spaces to be used if needed.Dining and cocurricular activities will be in-person.Student-athletes will compete in intercollegiate events that will include some form of fan attendance. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is moving ahead with spring sports, and the university believes full competition will be held in the fall.Study-abroad programs will likely recommence as travel restrictions are lifted, albeit with fewer students, the university said.Enhanced cleaning procedures that will increase the frequency of cleaning and feature the addition of over 125 ionization units that have been shown to eliminate 99% of viruses, bacteria and molds.
