The Louisiana Board of Regents announced Thursday that students can return to campus in the fall if the state's colleges and universities follow guidance from public health officials on how to safely conduct in-person activities in the wake of the initial spread of coronavirus.
Dr. Alex Billioux, assistant secretary of the state’s Office of Public Health, shared strategies for opening campuses during the board's monthly meeting Thursday, in which school leaders disclosed the options they're considering in their phased approaches toward the new academic year.
Plans will be finalized in the coming weeks, the leaders said, but schools are already preparing policies such as requiring all campus members to wear masks, cutting off in-person instruction before Thanksgiving and dividing up large classes on a rotating schedule to adhere with the state's social distancing requirements.
Unknowns still remain. But, unless there is a regression in the state's COVID-19 circumstances, school leaders expect to move forward with the plans they've already begun to share with local administrations.
"We are coming back," interim LSU president Tom Galligan told the Baton Rouge Area Chamber on Tuesday, and, on Thursday afternoon, UL System president Jim Henderson echoed the sentiment, acknowledging circumstances still must change.
"Fall 2020 is not going to look like the last half of Spring 2020," Henderson told the system's Ad Hoc Committee on Post Pandemic Operations. "It's also going to look decidedly differently than Fall 2019, and anyone that denies that is just not paying attention to reality."
Of course, before schools reach the fall, they still have to successfully move through the steps that are in place for the summer.
Academic policy largely hinges on what national, state and local governments decide, and Louisiana is currently in "Phase 1" of Gov. John Bel Edwards' meticulous plan to reopen the state.
Institutions have been inching along, too, and for now, schools like LSU have returned a maximum of 25% of the school's employees.
Edwards has not yet implemented Phase 2, but Galligan said LSU is expecting to begin its next stage of its campus return on June 8.
In LSU's Phase 2 return-to-campus plan, the university will bump up its employee count to "50% or less." Critical personnel on campus will stagger in-office work days, where employees will alternate with Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedules and Tuesday-Thursday schedules in the office.
Research labs will be able to open based on priority with the Provost's Office and the school's Emergency Operations Center. The library may open for faculty and graduate students only to pick up and return materials, while digital delivery continues, and the bookstore will open but has limited curbside service.
There still will be no in-person, all-staff meetings, and the teaching labs, studios, UREC and student union will remain closed.
The UL System's Henderson said there is no "one size fits all" solution to the system's nine campuses, and the system has laid out a framework for its Phase 2 approach.
If the fall semester arrives, and Louisiana remains in Phase 2, the UL System's framework calls for in-person classes and labs to be restricted to 50% of the fire marshal's max occupancy, with strict adherence to social distancing guidelines.
At Phase 3, Henderson said, circumstances will "allow us to return to some sense of normalcy."
School officials said they were in contact with students government leaders, students and parents, and, although the fall semester is a few months away, schools have needed to provide a picture of what on-campus functions will operate and how on-campus life will look like.
Galligan and Henderson both said they expect their students and faculty will have to wear masks in public. Athletic decisions are still forming at the NCAA and conference level, but Galligan said "it's certainly possible that we might have to wear masks" at Tiger Stadium.
"We desperately hope that we are all there again soon," Galligan said, "staying safe, staying physically distant, but yelling loudly into our masks."
Classrooms will most likely be hybrid blends of online and in-person attendance.
University of New Orleans president John Nicklow gave an example where, in a 100-person class, there might be 25 students in the classroom, 25 next door in another classroom watching on a screen, and, then, 50 others taking the class remotely that day. For a Monday/Wednesday/Friday class, those spots would alternate each day.
Nicklow also said UNO will likely eliminate up to 10% of their on-campus housing capacity to make room for proper social distancing.
Martin Lemelle, Chief Operating Officer at Grambling State University, said the school has already filled up their on-campus housing, which is forcing them to look at where else they can house students off-campus.
The Southern University System and Tulane University are still working on plans to reopen campus, school spokespeople said.
Baton Rouge Community College, spokesman Quintin Taylor said, will be offering students a "synchronized scheduling" format, in which students will be offered a hybrid of classes that will be a combination of in-person and online classes.
