By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University hopes preparation leads to a full semester of classes on the St. Joseph campus.
Interim university president Elizabeth Kennedy says the Missouri Western COVID Response Plan was developed in March and a special committee headed by an infectious disease specialist has been guiding the university since it welcomed students back to campus last month.
Kennedy says the university is attempting to strike a delicate balance.
“We want to have people that are socially distanced, but not socially isolated and I think that’s critical for the college student and what he or she is looking for in terms of a university experience,” Kennedy tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Kennedy says the biggest question facing the administration was how to engage with students even while requiring masks be worn and social distance be kept. Kennedy says it will take cooperation from faculty, staff, and students to keep the campus safe and open.
“This summer, even in my role as Vice Provost, I heard from a lot of students that they wanted to come back, they wanted to have that experience, and so we’re really working hard to make sure that we can keep that open for everybody,” Kennedy says.
Missouri Western has approximately 3,900 students enrolled this semester, with only 500 solely online. Missouri Western began the semester August 17th with the hopes of wrapping up classes prior to Thanksgiving.
The university reports 17 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday; two on campus and 15 off campus.
Kennedy says university administrators are receiving input from a variety of sources to stay on top of the pandemic.
“We’re just monitoring the situation, following the CDC guidelines, paying attention to what we need to do to keep us as safe and as healthy as possible,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says Missouri Western, as an applied learning university, must hold some classes in-person, making work to avoid a COVID outbreak even more important.