In a town hall run by West Chester’s Student Government Association, President Fiorentino and Vice President Davenport answered student questions along with other prominent WCU staff members. Most, if not all, of the questions asked expressed concerns about plans and preparation for the fall semester.
Although plans of reopening in the fall have been shared with WCU students, uncertainty around how we are planning to come back to campus remains. At the rate at which vaccines are being distributed now, WCU faculty is optimistic that most students will be vaccinated before coming back in the fall.
All the speakers on the panel addressed the importance of getting vaccinated as more become available. Fiorentino noted, “For us to be successful, we need our community to be vaccinated.”
Although the staff are sure that herd immunity will be the most important factor in reopening, concrete plans for bringing students and faculty back to full classrooms and housing have not yet been made.
“We want to be mindful of how the transition back to normal is going to occur … but at this point, we don’t really have enough information to lay out the definitive plan for how that’s going to happen.”
As for protecting students in the fall, Davenport noted that the contact tracing and testing that is being implemented now will most likely continue in an in-person atmosphere.
“We will continue to review and implement protocols by the CDC and the Pennsylvania Health Department, and we also will continue to offer testing options through the Student Health Services Office for students who develop symptoms or identify as close contacts when we confirm those positive cases.”
A close contact is anyone who has been within six feet of someone who tests positive for COVID-19 for fifteen minutes or more.
A student inquired whether the alternative grading policy that is available now will be available for the fall semester. Deputy Provost Jeffery Osgood admitted that the university faculty “has not honestly wrestled with the alternative grading policy for the fall.”
He pointed out that if the plans to go back to normal take place without any new COVID-19 restrictions or major outbreaks, the alternative grading policy will not be needed. If adjustments need to be made based on new COVID-19 restrictions or problems, they will take alternative grading into consideration again.
Recently, WCU made the decision to reserve housing in the fall for current first-year students who have not had the opportunity to be on campus in addition to the incoming freshmen. With two classes guaranteed housing next fall, many upperclassmen students have had to scramble to find housing near or on campus which had been previously available. Students wondered how the university was planning to address affordable housing needs for upperclassmen living on South Campus.
The President and the Vice President acknowledged that WCU currently does not have enough housing to accommodate the need of almost 1,000 beds. Osgood pointed out the work that they have been doing to increase housing by reaching out to the community over the last year and a half.
Davenport addressed the issue: “We realize it’s a problem; we’re not just sitting around saying ‘Look, we can’t do anything.’ We’re trying to work with the local community to see if we can expand our reach, so we can house more students.”
With the news of COVID-19 infection rates and vaccine availability constantly changing, WCU faculty and staff are hesitant to make concrete plans for the fall but remain optimistic that we will come back to WCU in person.
Emma Hogan is a first-year English major. EH954390@wcupa.edu