BACK TO SCHOOL
From sanitizer stands to social distancing, ECU prepares for students’ return
Darrell Roebuck assembles one of the disinfecting wipe stands that crews have placed near classroom doors across campus.
Block scheduling? Check.
Hand sanitizer? Check.
Social distancing? Check.
Face masks? Check.
East Carolina University is ready for the start of classes next week amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Faculty and staff have worked hard to prepare to do so safely, and we hope that everyone – students, faculty and staff alike – are mindful and respectful of the measures in place to keep all Pirates healthy as we work together to fulfill our mission,” said Interim Provost Grant Hayes.
Toward that end, on a late July day, moving services staffers Marcel Reddick and Donnie Garris were busy putting decals on desks in the Austin Building to show students where they could and couldn’t sit. The stickers were part of setting up the more than 200 classrooms on campus for social distancing based on 50% occupancy.
Crews have put up thousands of safety and social-distancing signs across campus. They have also assembled approximately 500 stands for sanitizing wipes for use in classrooms and labs and have put out about 150 hand sanitizing stations.
Those are just some of the logistical and operational challenges the university has tackled in recent weeks as it prepares for the start of the fall semester Aug. 10.
“It will be an ever-evolving process that will probably require some edits, modifications and physical changes,” said Bill Bagnell, associate vice chancellor for campus operations.
For starters, ECU has divided the semester into eight-week blocks to condense the time needed to complete classes in case the coronavirus interrupts instruction as happened in the spring. In addition, classes of more than 50, where social distancing isn’t possible, have been moved online. They are part of the 44 percent of ECU’s 4,034 scheduled class sections that will be virtual this fall, said Dawn Pilgrim-Dunn, associate director of space planning.
“We are still offering a comparable number of seats in courses,” Pilgrim-Dunn said. “Block scheduling was implemented to allow for greater flexibility should the need arise. We have had this as a goal, and were looking to establish as an option for fall 2021, but the pandemic pushed up the timetable.”
“The challenges this semester have been enormous,” Pilgrim-Dunn said. “There were seven sub-groups as part of a combined effort to make sure that at every decision point we asked the question, ‘How does this affect the safety of our faculty, staff and students?’ You can’t imagine how many intersections there are to consider, and these groups spent days, sleepless nights and weekends researching anything and everything that will help to minimize fractures to our plan.”
In addition to the instructional changes, ECU is requiring students, faculty and staff members to do daily online health assessments before coming to campus and to wear masks in most situations while on campus.
Hayes is hopeful the measures ECU has taken – accompanied by faculty, staff and students compliance with them – will keep the semester on track.
“Best case scenario to me would be all members of the campus community sharing responsibility for our health and well-being by following guidelines and expectations,” Hayes said. “That has to happen so that we can all focus on what matters most, which is our mission – student success, public service and regional transformation. Now more than ever, with so much to distract us from that focus, Pirates need to work together.
“I would hate to see us resume in-person activities and become careless, which could cause us to have to scale back or eliminate activities,” Hayes said. “That would be extremely unfortunate.”
Matt Clark of Joyner Library holds an acrylic sheet while Floyd Conner prepares the wire to hang it. They were part of a buildings operations crew preparing Joyner Library for the return of students Aug. 10.