MINNEAPOLIS — The school year is just weeks away from beginning. This topic has dominated our conversations because of COVID.
We've talked a lot about what elementary, middle and high schools are doing -- but there's been less focus on colleges.
Throughout the summer, school administrators like University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Student Affairs, Warren Anderson have been busy preparing for re-entry.
Anderson said the UW-Eau Claire campus is preparing to welcome back 10,500 students. He said he had heard from both students and faculty that they favor in-person, face-to-face instruction.
"Most students came looking for a face-to-face experience," Anderson said. "That's why they wanted the experience of coming to UW-Eau Claire. If a student wanted to go virtually, that's a choice they would have made."
So the school decided, first and foremost that they are going to ask all students and staff to sign what they're calling the Blugold Fly Right Pledge.
"It really involves three things," Anderson explained. "One is a pledge to protect yourself, making sure you're washing your hands, using hand sanitizer, wearing your face mask. The other is a pledge to protect others, again, wearing your face mask or socially distancing, doing everything you can to protect those around you."
One of the unique parts of the UW-EC pledge though, is the school's request that students, staff and faculty log their temperature using an app that they are working to build before the semester begins. The school said it is developing the app along with the Mayo Clinic.
"What we're doing is asking every member of the community, student faculty, administrator to monitor and log your temperature and symptoms every single day including weekends and including days you're not going to be here," Anderson said.
When asked how much faith he is putting in his students and even the grown-ups on campus to strictly follow the protocol, he said he knows it's the university putting big trust in folks.
"Students are students and we know what college is like," he said. "Our hope is that everyone is taking this seriously. This is a little more serious than forgetting to eat breakfast or deciding to skip an event or something. This really is something that has detrimental effects if we're not all honest and keeping up with."
Anderson added that the pledge is not meant to be a punitive measure. He said it's the school's way of laying out all the tools it possibly can for students and staff to create the learning environment they had been asking for.
"The contract says that it could include disciplinary action, it could also include things up to locking your account so you can't change or register or drop classes," he said. "Just so we can get it on the record that you understood what the responsibility is for you to come back face-to-face. We are hoping we don't have to take those extraordinary steps but we're trying to have it in writing or on the record that those that choose not to comply with keeping our community safe, we do reserve the right to keep our community safe from this pandemic."
UW-Eau Claire is asking students to sign the pledge by the first week of September. Anderson said so far, over 3,000 students have done it.
As for Minnesota schools, the University of St. Thomas is asking students to sign a similar pledge that involves self-screening protocols for COVID-19 symptoms. They are relying on their students to be honest about reporting that as well.