PINE BLUFF -- Classes at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff will start one week earlier than originally scheduled for the fall semester and wrap up Nov. 25, before the Thanksgiving break that many students traditionally use to travel home for a long holiday weekend. The change is an effort to make the campus safer during the coronavirus pandemic.
During the fall semester, which is now scheduled to start on Aug. 17, the university said it still intends to offer on-campus classes, but "a larger portion of courses will be offered online," Robert Carr, the university's provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in a news release.
Students will take courses in three formats: online, in-person or a combination of face-to-face and online.
Carr cited the university's effort to help protect the health and wellness of faculty and staff members, and students during "a pandemic that is unpredictable" as reasons for the adjusted academic calendar and reliance on online courses.
"In anticipation of this unique fall semester, every course in the catalog has a Blackboard shell and will be ready for web-based delivery just in case we have to migrate to a completely online format at any point during the semester," he wrote in a memo dated Monday and distributed to the campus community.
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In a related matter, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced Thursday that it has canceled fall sports competitions.
The cancellation affects UAPB's Sept. 19 home football game against Bethune-Cookman -- a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
In a statement, UAPB Athletic Director Chris Peterson said: "While we internally consider scheduling options, we will follow and adhere to the decision of the Southwestern Athletic Conference regarding competing this fall when that determination is announced."
DEALING WITH COVID-19
Schools, businesses, sports teams, concert halls and other places that have been affected by the global pandemic are taking measures to help contain the spread of covid-19, a respiratory illness that can readily spread from person to person.
Colleges and universities have specific challenges -- students arriving on campus from different states and countries; living in close quarters in residence halls; freely socializing on and off campus.
Some, like the nearly 500,000-student, 23-campus California State University System, will offer a majority of its classes online.
Others, like UAPB and Texas Southern University in Houston, intend to open in the fall semester but start and end earlier than originally planned. Students would finish the semester before Thanksgiving weekend.
Of 1,200 colleges and universities across the nation and tracked by The Chronicle of Higher Education newspaper, about 10% of schools plan online-only classes; 55% plan in-person classes. Another 30% plan to offer hybrid instruction. Other schools have not finalized plans.
UAPB'S RULES
According to Carr's memo for the 2,535-student UAPB campus:
• Everyone will be expected to wear face coverings at all times when in a public place.
• Face coverings will be distributed by the university to students, and faculty and staff members.
• Social distancing will be implemented at all times.
• Temperature checks will be conducted as people enter the campus and randomly throughout the campus.
• Students and employees are strongly encouraged to wash their hands throughout the day.
• Shields are being installed at service areas throughout the campus to provide safe communication spaces.
• Stations will be located throughout the campus to allow people to frequently sanitize their hands.
• Classrooms are being assessed to determine the number of students who can occupy the room, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
• Computer labs are being marked to determine the number of people allowed to use the lab at any one time.
• All buildings are being regularly cleaned and sanitized.
• Thorough ongoing cleaning of all campus facilities -- including residence halls, classroom spaces and dining halls.
• Appropriate cleaning and disinfecting of desks and high-touch surfaces will occur throughout the day for classes, labs and public areas between usage.
• Social-distancing stickers are being placed throughout the campus to identify the required six-feet distance.
• Shuttle services are being modified to accommodate the ability to transport fewer passengers.
• Technology will be expanded to provide greater services.
• Flu shots will be strongly recommended for all students, and faculty and staff members.
"We will conduct daily monitoring and reporting of temperature and any onset of symptoms by all faculty, staff, students, and visitors who are on campus," Carr wrote in the memo.
"We also strongly encourage self-monitoring and will provide temperature gauges. Additionally, the Student Health Center will implement a system for electronic reporting, and will include safeguards to protect personal data and privacy. If there are symptoms, diagnostic testing will be required. If the test is positive, consultation with a health care provider and isolation will be mandatory."
Testing will be done at the time a student checks into a residence hall, he said in the memo.
Freshmen are scheduled to move into UAPB residence halls Aug. 10-11. Upperclassmen are set to move in from Aug. 12-14, Tisha D. Arnold, the university's public information officer, said in an email.
For any positive diagnostic test results, Carr wrote, "a contact tracing team will be in place to identify potential secondary cases to limit the spread of infection. We have also established our own early contact tracing."
If conditions allow, the university said, fall commencement exercises will take place on Nov. 21.
More information is available at http://www.uapb.edu/covid19