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How universities like St. Thomas are preparing for the school year

From new hand sanitizer stations, to reduced class sizes, educators at the University of St. Thomas are getting ready for students on September 9th.

ST PAUL, Minn. — At the University of St. Thomas, the buildings, classrooms and common areas will be the same this school year, but what’s in those spaces may look very different.

Associate Vice Provost of Student Achievement Sheneeta White says campus officials spent most of the summer de-cluttering the university to prepare for students in the fall.

"We have reduced down the capacity significantly in a lot of spaces,” White explains.

“In the common area here, we removed a lot of chairs where we normally had four per table, now we only have two per table.”

Many of the walls on campus are also covered with signs and stickers that teach students proper cleaning techniques and safe social distancing rules.

White says workers also installed more than 700 hand sanitizer stations and hundreds of cleaning stations.

"We're reminding students to wipe down, to sort of clean when they come into a space, and clean when they go out,” White says.

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“At each station, the disinfectant will be refilled every night.”

Classrooms will also look different.

White showed off a classroom that used to have a capacity of 71 students.

The same classroom now has a capacity of only 25 students.

“We spaced out the classroom and took out chairs so that students have to be six feet apart,” White says.

They also added cameras, microphones, and monitors in most classrooms so students at home can participate virtually.

White says 75% of the classes this semester will be on campus, at least part time. And she feels these safety measures, and others, will give them the best chance possible to keep those classes in person.

"We're all kind of in this together and everybody is working really, really hard to pull this off."

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