Middle Georgia colleges prepare for fall semester amid the coronavirus pandemic
As the fall semester gets closer, Middle Georgia colleges and universities are navigating how to hold in-person classes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Middle Georgia, especially Macon, has recently seen an increase in the number of new coronavirus cases per day with a 7-day average of 76.1 new cases, according to the most up-to-date information from the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Wesleyan College has moved its classes to larger classrooms in order to ensure social distancing as well as cut the amount of time students are in classrooms. Central Georgia Technical College is following protocols designed for the Technical College System of Georgia, and Middle Georgia State University is providing faculty, staff and students with four washable masks to wear on campus. Georgia College will return to in-person classes in the fall, and has amended its school calendar and final exam schedule.
“We’re very excited to welcome our faculty, staff and students back,” said Jennifer Stenander, vice president for enrollment management at Middle Georgia State University. “There’s a lot of anxiety right now, and we want everyone to know the measures that we’re taking because the safety of our faculty, staff and our students is top priority for us.”
Like other colleges and universities, Middle Georgia State is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for cleaning and modifying class sizes to ensure social distancing.
Although the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t directly impacted Middle Georgia State’s enrollment, the university has seen budget cuts because it is a public university.
“We’ve been very conscientious I would say, more so than unique, [because] we did not let a single person go,” Stenander said. “That’s one thing that I’m very proud of that we’ve been able to do is cut our budget the way we have and not have to let go of any of our faculty or staff.”
Five different campuses present challenges at Middle Georgia State to implement safety procedures because it takes more time and work, but Stenander said the protocols will be implemented effectively at each campus.
Although most of the schools summer courses are online, it had some courses that had to be in-person, such as flight training. The university was able to implement safety protocols for those classes through the summer, Stenander said.
A trial run
Amy Holloway, vice president for Academic Affairs at Central Georgia Technical College, said the school had a limited amount of summer lab classes that served as a trial run in a way for the fall semester.
One of 22 technical colleges in the Technical College System of Georgia, the TCSG developed protocols for colleges to be able to host lab classes in-person.
“We have been working very hard this summer to put those measures into place and also have the opportunity to see them work successfully in practice,” Holloway said. “Given the impact that coronavirus has had on the economy, we also take very seriously our mission – our workforce development mission – in helping students successfully complete their programs, and to be able to enter or re-enter the workforce, so that they can provide for themselves and their families.”
The importance of in-person learning
Because CGTC is a nonresidential college, they only have to worry about cleaning and maintaining social distancing in their learning facilities, but they faced other challenges when the coronavirus outbreak started in Middle Georgia.
Although most of their classes quickly converted to online learning, some of their programs require in-person learning in order to meet the requirements for those programs, such as commercial truck driving and welding.
“As a Technical College, we do have a number of programs that require that hands-on skills learning that needs to be on campus with our equipment or at another job location, such as a hospital clinical site. So we do appreciate our technical college system for providing us that framework to be able to offer limited labs during the summer that do follow the safety guidelines and are approved,” Holloway said.
Melody Blake, Provost of Wesleyan College, said they have moved classes to larger spaces to ensure social distancing and reduced the amount of time students spend in the classroom.
“Students will probably only be in the classroom for a class one day a week, and then the other part of it will be online,” she said. “They get some of the benefits of the classroom experience which people want, but they also minimize their exposure to each other by not being in the classroom too often.”
When people discuss ideas in person, they are able to interact and have a richer experience than a discussion over a virtual system, such as Zoom, she said. In-person interaction allows the students to get to know each other and trust each other so they can “really grapple with the ideas” that are presented in the classroom, she said.
“I think it’s important that we at least have some of that experience. That’s what we promise, and so we’re trying to replicate that and preserve it as much as we can and keep people safe,” Blake said. “We’re trying to be responsive to the needs of our students and our faculty and staff.… Every plan that we make might and probably will change as things evolve, so, that is one of the advantages of being a small, private, liberal arts college is that we can respond quicker as things change.”
Converting to online learning
Wesleyan has added technology to their classrooms to make online learning more conducive to discussion based classes, Blake said.
Every classroom has a camera that moves to the sound of the speaker, so quarantining students can see who’s talking in the classroom discussion. The quarantined student will also join the classes via Zoom so they can still participate in the conversation, she said.
“We’re actually really excited about that technology, and we actually think that even after the COVID world, there will be other uses for that technology because people get sick besides other reasons than COVID,” she said.
Wesleyan also installed mounted thermometers at the entrance of college facilities so people can check their temperature when they walk in the door, Blake said.
Unique responses to the coronavirus
In addition, Wesleyan is having its students and faculty and staff sign a “Protect the Pack” pledge, so the campus community can commit to each other to promote safety and health, Blake said.
CGTC is also finding different ways to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. The college will have students self-report if they test positive for the virus, and they will have isolation rooms available for those students, said Janet Kelly, assistant vice president for Enrollment Services.
CGTC’s fall semester starts Aug. 18, but if students don’t feel comfortable coming in August, they can enroll in the college’s second fall semester, which starts in October, Kelly said.
Middle Georgia State is providing each classroom and facility with a spray bottle so students, faculty and staff can clean in addition to the cleaning the university is already doing, Stenander said.
This will allow students to clean their desks and workstations before using them.
“I feel like that just helps the students feel even more comfortable,” she said.
Mercer University created Bears Care kits that include:
Mercer cloth mask
Two-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer
Digital thermometer
Bears Care lapel pin
Sticker with Student Health Center hotline number and list of COVID-19 symptoms
Information card on proper mask usage and personal hygiene tips
“Bears Care” pledge card to promote personal responsibility
Mercer’s response to student complaints
Mercer students have expressed concerns about returning to campus amid the coronavirus outbreak including starting a petition to give students the option to do online learning.
“If we don’t have our health, then there is no real point in education because we’re not healthy enough to come to class. So I don’t think we should have to choose between our health and our education,” said Cameron Dawkins, a Mercer student, in a previous Telegraph article.
A student even published a video that has received more than 4,000 views on YouTube explaining how Mercer is not offering an online option despite other universities allowing students to make the choice for themselves.
Larry Brumley, the senior vice president for marketing communications and chief of staff at Mercer, said in the article that Mercer has a plan in place, similar to other universities, that will ensure the safety of students.
“While we recognize that there are some students out there who are anxious about this and have concerns about this, we are also hearing from a good many students, both returning and incoming, that they are ready to be here. They’re ready to be back on campus,” Brumley said. “We’re doing what we believe is best by our students in terms of what we committed to do for them when they enrolled at Mercer, and we believe in the kind of education that we offer. It’s experiential, and you can’t replicate that online.”