With new students, faculty and staff, the beginning of each fall semester looks different, but this fall, ETSU President Brian Noland knows campus will look more different than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the things that makes any fall different is that institutions are revitalized by the new faces who call them home every fall,” Noland said. “But those new faces will face a campus that looks a little bit different.”
Although ETSU initially aimed to be in stage three of their re-opening plan for the fall, the university announced Aug. 10 that it would remain in a modified stage two for the start of the semester. This decision, Noland said, was made in the interest of public safety and the health of ETSU students.
“We’ve made a series of decisions that were made in an effort to ensure that we begin the semester and end the semester seamlessly,” Noland said. “In the spring, as COVID emerged, we as an institution right before spring break pivoted. We sent everything online. We sent everyone home. The decisions we’ve made, we’ve made in an effort to ensure that this fall we do not pivot.”
The modified stage two includes a reduction of on-ground courses in an effort to decrease the campus’s population density. More than 80% of fall courses will be online, and less than 20% will be on ground.
“Those courses are on ground because they’re required for academic integrity, for delivery, for the very nature of how integrity and delivery come together in a classroom,” Noland said. “So, your engineering technology courses – a lot of those labs are going to be on ground. Music will be on ground. Clinicals will be on ground.”
Residence halls have been converted to single-bed occupancy. This includes Lucille Clement, Governors, West and Carter Halls, as well as Davis, Luntsford and some Carter Hall Apartments. While students re-assigned to single rooms will be charged the amount of their original assignment, students who had previously requested private rooms will still be charged the price of a double.
The university will require face coverings inside classrooms and public spaces. They must also be worn in outdoor areas where social distancing cannot be maintained. Indoor gatherings unrelated to academic coursework cannot exceed 15 people.
Although the number of students in residence halls and classrooms will be reduced, campus common areas such as the D.P. Culp Student Center, the Basler Center for Physical Activity and the Sherrod Library will still be functional with enhanced sanitizing protocols in place.
“For students who are on campus, and students who are taking courses on-ground,” Noland said, “I think they’re really going to have kind of a highly customized and real hands-on experience. You know, I often say that ETSU is a major university. It’s big enough to have all the moving parts but still has a small school feel. That small school feel will be heightened a little bit this year because there will be fewer people on campus, but we’ll still have all the services, and there will be people physically here.”
Capacity in the dining hall will be limited during peak hours, with Culp ballrooms utilized for overflow seating. Furniture in common spaces in buildings across campus have been distanced.
A challenge of the semester, Noland acknowledged, will be maintaining a sense of community and campus culture without as many people physically on campus.
“Universities talk about their teaching, research and service missions, but there’s a fourth leg on that table,” Noland said. “And that’s a convening mission. We bring people together. We bring people to celebrate. We bring people together to debate. We bring people together to commune. We bring people together to in all types of settings for all types of purposes and all types of outcomes. This fall, that’s not going to be part of things we’re able to do. So, we’re going to have to find a way to hold up that end of the table virtually.”
The university plans to offer virtual events throughout the fall similar to the Laughing Alone Together series held in the spring, which featured cast-members of “Saturday Night Live”. Along with virtual events, Noland thinks students will still be able to build community within their small friend networks.
He said he is confident that ETSU will be in a position for things to look a little more normal by the spring. Despite current physical restrictions, he believes the skills learned during this time will be valuable to students’ futures.
“This university has been around since 1911,” Noland said. “We’ve endured World Wars, the Great Depression and the pandemic of 1918, and 20 years from now you all as students will look back at this and say, ‘You know, I learned these skills while I was at ETSU that have benefitted me my entire career.’ And as we’re moving into a world that’s more and more online, both from a service provision, delivery perspective and just a way of convening, I think a lot of the skills we’re learning as a result of COVID are going to be skills that service for the rest of our careers.”
Noland said a key factor needed for ETSU to be able to shift into stage three for the spring is adherence to the university’s safety protocols this semester, which include wearing masks, social-distancing and hand washing. He is concerned that people may “let their guards down,” and urges that students hold off on large-group gatherings “a little bit longer.”
“My concern,” Noland said, “ Is that we all come back, we get comfortable, we forget to wear the mask, we go to an event or gathering off-campus and the next thing you know, 20 of your friends are ill, two of your parents are ill, and it just starts to ripple. So, my advice to students is to just, please, please, take care of yourself, take care of your friends, take care of your family. Sacrifice with us just a little bit longer, and if we do the things we’re capable of doing, we’ll put COVID behind us.”
For students about to begin their first week of classes, Noland said to “enjoy this moment.” He hopes the start of the semester can provide a sense of normalcy and a chance for students to re-invent themselves.
“We’ve been working through COVID since March, and sometimes every day feels like Groundhog Day,” Noland said. “Hopefully, with the start of the semester, the start of classes, be it on-ground or online, it’s a chance to start something new and start without COVID being what’s hanging over our heads. So, don’t let this take away from the beauty of the experience that’s in front of you, which is the chance to start something fresh and new, and to define who you are for your faculty on your terms.”
For more information about the modified stage two re-opening and protocols for the fall, visit https://www.etsu.edu/coronavirus/.
