Coordinating City Reopening with University Plans
Hi, All. We are wondering if any of you have concerns about how well your
state/city/county plans for reopening will mesh with your university's
hopes and timelines for the same. For example, our university has not yet
said exactly what it will be doing as far as numbers of students coming
back, or when, or the ways in which they might be accommodated differently
from before. But at some point, perhaps in a matter of months, we assume
some or all may be coming back to town. Meanwhile, our state is opening in
a multi-phased way, somewhat faster than our local health department is
moving. We imagine that at some point, there may be allowable capacities in
student eateries and bars that the university and the city are
uncomfortable with, with a decline in protective behaviors exacerbated by
alcohol consumption.
Where there is potential overlap of interest like this, are your
universities and local health departments collaborating on things?
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Our local paper just published the below story today about the University of Kansas fall plans.
An overarching theme of the COVID-19 crisis, University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod said Tuesday, is that it’s been much easier to shut down operations than to open them back up.
Girod, appearing at the KU Health System’s daily media briefinghttps://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/301551934340833/, acknowledged that many things would almost certainly look different on the KU campus when the fall semester begins in August.
“It’s not going to be our typical opening, for sure,” he said. “Certainly, some things just aren’t going to happen, because we just aren’t ready, and events are a very big one of those.”
Those changes are likely to include a staged move-in process for on-campus living and greater control over that environment once students have moved in, Girod said.
He also said that “we have to get to a cultural acceptance” of wearing masks, which will likely be encouraged, if not required, for KU students and faculty members. The worst thing that can happen, Girod said, is to reopen the campus and then have a large COVID-19 outbreak and be forced to again shut down operations midsemester.
“We want to do it right, we want to do it slow, and we want to do it safe,” Girod said.
As previous campus messages have communicated, Girod said Tuesday that KU over the summer would be ramping up its capacity to test for COVID-19, conduct contract tracing in university dorm rooms, and setting aside a facility for quarantining.
As for the university’s athletic programs, KU Athletic Director Jeff Long also joined Tuesday’s briefing and was blunt in saying that officials just don’t know at this point how or if fans will be able to attend games in David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium or Allen Fieldhouse when it comes time for fall sports.
“We are modeling, and we’ve modeled 15,000 to 16,000 fans in Memorial Stadium,” Long said. “We’ve modeled Allen Fieldhouse, but I can’t bring myself to look at it because I know how few people it will be.”
“Certainly, a vaccine and preventative things could help us,” he said.
Big 12 counterpart Iowa State on Tuesday announced that it was absolutely planning on playing football in the fall but that current guidelines stated it would have to reduce the capacity of it stadium to only 30,000.
Long wasn’t as committal Tuesday, but said KU was cautiously planning for its first game to take place as scheduled on Sept. 5, but what level of fan participation there could be may not become clear for several months. Despite everything, KU already has seen a 90% renewal rate for its football season tickets, Long said.
The university’s athletics offices reopened to staff and coaches on May 18, with the requirement that everyone wear a protective face mask, Long said.
“We’ll do the same with our student athletes when they return,” he said. “We’ve had our partners with Adidas provide us with some 2,000 masks for our student athletes, and we will issue those to our young people when they return to campus.”
Last week, the Big 12 Conference announced student athletes could do voluntary workouts on college campuses beginning June 15. One month later is when the KU men’s and women’s basketball teams can return for workouts, Long said.
As of the most recent data released Monday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state of Kansas has confirmed over 9,200 cases of COVID-19, which have resulted in 188 deaths since the pandemic began in March.
From: Universitycities universitycities-bounces@lists.imla.org On Behalf Of Philippa Guthrie
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2020 1:42 PM
To: universitycities@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Universitycities] Coordinating City Reopening with University Plans
Hi, All. We are wondering if any of you have concerns about how well your state/city/county plans for reopening will mesh with your university's hopes and timelines for the same. For example, our university has not yet said exactly what it will be doing as far as numbers of students coming back, or when, or the ways in which they might be accommodated differently from before. But at some point, perhaps in a matter of months, we assume some or all may be coming back to town. Meanwhile, our state is opening in a multi-phased way, somewhat faster than our local health department is moving. We imagine that at some point, there may be allowable capacities in student eateries and bars that the university and the city are uncomfortable with, with a decline in protective behaviors exacerbated by alcohol consumption.
Where there is potential overlap of interest like this, are your universities and local health departments collaborating on things?
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
This transmission (including any attachments) may contain information which is confidential, attorney work product and/or subject to the attorney-client privilege, and is intended solely for the recipient(s) named above. If you are not a named recipient, any interception, copying, distribution, disclosure or use of this transmission or any information contained in it is strictly prohibited, and may be subject to criminal and civil penalties. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately call us collect at (812) 349-3426, delete the transmission from all forms of electronic or other storage, and destroy all hard copies. Do NOT forward this transmission. Thank you.