Pictured Above: USF St. Petersburg’s new dining hall, The Nest, is open in Osprey Suites.
Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
After a careful holiday and a socially-distant New Year, school is back in semi-full swing for the spring semester.
As classes officially begin this week, students are to expect a smoother sail after overcoming the obstacles of an unprecedented fall semester.
“As of right now, we expect 337 (currently in housing) — 169 in Osprey Suites and 168 in (the Pelican Apartments)… This number will change slightly as we receive new applications and new cancellations,” Susan Kimbrough, director of housing and residential education, told The Crow’s Nest in an email.
All students — even those exclusively partaking in distance learning — faculty and staff are required to complete the Return to Campus Assessment; it can be accessed through MyUSF.
Students planning to return to campus, whether in the residence halls or the classroom, must fill out a daily symptom check. When approved, students will receive a CampusPass that is expected to be shown when on campus.
Students living on campus and those who will be on campus regularly are subject to random COVID-19 testing in an effort to mitigate the virus within residence halls and other campus facilities.
Spring classes will be similar to classes in the fall, with many students tuning in for Microsoft Teams class meetings.
As previously reported by The Crow’s Nest, when registration opened on Nov. 2, the majority of classes at USF St. Petersburg remained online. The offerings of in-person classes decreased from 27 percent in the fall to 23.8 percent in the spring and hybrid class offerings increased by 5.5 percent.
USF administration also announced on Oct. 5 that spring break would be moved from March 15-21 to April 12-18. Following spring break, all classes will be delivered remotely through the remainder of the semester.
Students returning to campus can also look forward to the new dining hall in the Osprey Suites residence hall as well as a renovated second floor of Davis Hall.
Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
“Be prepared to transition to quality online delivery at any point in the spring semester should conditions dictate; this includes making a plan to deliver online instruction for students exposed to and/or diagnosed with COVID-19,” Provost Ralph Wilcox said in an email to faculty.
However, speculations of student exposure to the virus are met with expectations that the COVID-19 vaccine will be made accessible to USF students in March or April. At this time, faculty 65 years or older are the only group being administered the vaccine.
There will also be a virtual campus community Town Hall meeting at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14, hosted by President Steve Currall, Vice President for Human Resources Angie Sklenka, and Donna Petersen, dean of the college of public health and chair of USF’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Attendees can expect to learn information about USF’s “new mitigation strategies, testing and vaccine program, as well as strategies to help us navigate change and tend to self-care” according to an email from Currall.
The Town Hall can be accessed through the USF Newsroom website, where a live-stream will start on Jan. 14.
With 2020 in the past, faculty and staff are optimistic of the coming months and plan to make this semester more manageable than the last.
“We heard a lot from (faculty), our staff and our students throughout the fall 2020 semester about how we are missing our sense of community in this physically distanced environment,” Provost Ralph Wilcox said in an email to faculty.
“To that end, we now have a dedicated multi-campus, interdisciplinary workgroup developing a curated calendar of academic enrichment programs to engage all members of our university community, across all three campuses, in collaboration with academic colleges, support units, departments and program areas,” Wilcox said.
Catherine Hicks contributed to this report.
