Pictured Above: The Florida Board of Governors gathered at University of Central Florida on June 23 to discuss approval of Florida’s state universities’ reopening plans.
Courtesy of University of Central Florida on YouTube
By Sophie Ojdanic
The Florida Board of Governors approved USF’s fall reopening plans on June 23. The plans had previously made it through the USF Board of Trustees on June 9 with unanimous approval.
USF was one of 12 universities to present their plans to the Board of Governors. University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of Central Florida were also among the approved universities.
USF President Steve Currall presented USF’s proposed reopening guidelines to the board, explaining how the goals of the university meshed with the requirements of the board.
The move to reopen USF and Florida’s other 11 public universities comes amid an ominous surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
The day after the Board of Governors took action, Florida marked a record for single-day cases, with 5,511 new reported infections, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties hit single-day highs in new cases, with 716 in Hillsborough and 354 in Pinellas, the Times reported.
As the number of cases has spiked, Gov. Ron DeSantis has noted that many of the victims are between 18 and 34 — a departure from the pattern of April and May, when most COVID-19 patients were older. Most coronavirus deaths remain people over 65, however.
Around the country, colleges and universities are closely watching the surge in COVID cases.
Many schools, including all 23 campuses in the California state university system and several schools at Harvard University, will be overwhelmingly online this fall.
For an up-to-date rundown of colleges’ plans for the fall, see a list compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
According to the presentation, high touch points will be cleaned daily by the custodial staff, and hand sanitizer will be made readily available at no cost to students or faculty.
Specific population testing will be put in place by the university system. These populations include out-of-state students, out-of-country students, students from any county in Florida with a positive test rate over 7 percent, and all residence hall students. A random sampling of 10 percent of off-campus students, faculty and staff will be tested as well.
All students, faculty and staff will be required to complete a baseline symptom survey before returning to campus.
Any member of the USF community who tests positive will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.
During the June 9 Board of Trustees meeting, Donna Petersen, dean of the College of Public Health, said the university was looking into a symptom tracking app for students. On this app, students would fill out a form asking for their temperature or if they’ve had a fever.
“We are still considering whether or not we would have handheld thermometers in certain locations,” Petersen said.
Any in-person classes that draw more than 100 students must be conducted virtually, while classes with 50 to 100 students are suggested to be conducted virtually.
The university plans to increase safety on campus with reduced classroom and laboratory density and rotational attendance for face-to-face classes. It has also put contingency plans in place to move online if need be.
Masks will be required in classrooms, offices and other university common areas.
Students will not be required to register for face-to-face classes.
Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock said that these reopening plans apply to all three campuses.
“If there are specific considerations that only apply to this (St. Petersburg) campus, we will address those here — if there are special circumstances,” Tadlock said.
Provost Ralph Wilcox expressed similar unitary sentiments at the June 23 Board of Governors meeting.
“In the context of starting back this fall, we will see a broad array of online classes allowing for that permeability across campuses,” Wilcox said. “We’ll get to fully leverage faculty resources in each of the three geographical locations.”
In terms of synergizing the three campuses amid the pandemic, Wilcox said “consolidation couldn’t have come at a better time to serve the needs of our students and leverage the combined intellectual capital and faculty across the three different campus locations.”
Inside residence halls, masks will be required in common areas, Petersen said. This includes laundry rooms and lounges. Masks will not be required in students’ personal dorm rooms or while walking on campus.
Residence halls will open at design capacity, with modifications made to the housing contract concerning safety during the pandemic and the denial of housing refunds.
Isolation spaces will be identified for those students who have tested positive for or may have been exposed to COVID-19.
There are also plans to modify the student move-in process.
According to Tadlock, USF St. Petersburg’s new residence hall, The Osprey, is on schedule to open in August.
“The dining facility is not; dining will continue to be delivered out of The Reef until the new dining facility is ready and that will be lagging behind,” he said.
The dining hall, set to be called “The Nest,” is scheduled to open after the fall semester.
“We hope that by the end of the fall semester the dining facility will be open in The Osprey,” Tadlock said.
The reopening presentation delivered by Currall said that “consequences for non-compliance will be clearly communicated.”
But those consequences were not defined.
“That’s undecided,” Tadlock said. “It will be everyone’s responsibility to monitor compliance with the guidelines on the campus.
“Everyone includes students and faculty. We should remind someone politely when we see the need. We do expect all employees to model and fully subscribe to those protocols.”
Tadlock expected more clarity following the Board of Governors meeting.
“This subject is still under discussion and we will await decisions from the Board of Governors and our own Board of Trustees about that,” he said.
An FAQ response on USF’s website said that consequences for students who fail to comply with guidelines started with removal from class or the workspace until university guidance is followed. No further information regarding consequences was shared.
In regards to reopening in the fall, Tadlock expressed his excitement.
“We miss the vibrancy of a campus where people are able to interact,” Tadlock said. “We look forward to having that vibrancy restored safely.”
Nancy McCann contributed to this report.
Editor’s Note
This article was edited on June 25, 2020, to provide more information regarding COVID-19.
