Missouri State University – West Plains Interim Chancellor Dr. Dennis Lancaster spoke to Ozark Radio News about the school’d plans to return to school this fall.
WEST PLAINS, Mo. – Students attending Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) this fall will see a “new normal” when classes begin Aug. 17.
University officials are finalizing policies designed to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This includes offering seated, hybrid and online courses.
“At Missouri State University-West Plains, we have worked since March to prepare the campus for our full return in August. Today, all services are available in campus offices with social distancing guidelines as a priority,” said Interim Chancellor Dennis Lancaster.
“By Aug. 13, the campus will be fully open, including the residence halls with reduced capacity,” he added. “While there will be differences in and out of the classroom, the commitment to providing a quality educational opportunity for students remains the same.”
New policies enacted by university officials to address the coronavirus pandemic include a cleaning and sanitizing plan, testing policy and masking policy, the latter of which requires masks to be used inside most buildings. A final masking policy will be approved by the MSU Board of Governors at its Aug. 7 meeting.
“Throughout this pandemic, we have worked to quickly adapt while continuing to serve our students, and that will continue to be our focus,” Lancaster said. “We had hoped at this point in the year the virus would have subsided or leveled off. Since that is not the case, we continue to review our plans and make adjustments where needed.
“We recently updated the Return to Campus Guide with the latest information concerning the policies and processes we will be following as we address positive cases involving students, faculty and staff members as they interact on campus,” Lancaster added. “Guidelines in handling these conditions continue to change, as we’ve seen since March, so this is a ‘living document’ that always will be subject to change.”
Several modes of instruction have been planned to reduce the number of students in a classroom and on campus at the same time.
These include:
- moving some sections into larger classrooms;
- splitting some sections into two classrooms. The faculty member will be in one classroom with students and appear via Zoom in the second classroom;
- blending some classes with in-person classroom instruction one day and Zoom/internet instruction the alternate day;
- spreading classes more evenly across the day and evening to make better use of space and increase the space available for students in a classroom or lab;
- using assigned seating in classes and taking attendance to maximize social distancing and provide efficient and effective tracking should a student test positive for COVID-19.
Faculty members also have developed contingency plans for all seated classes that will allow each class to continue if it must convert to remote delivery during the semester, university officials said.
For more information about the MSU-WP Return to Campus Guide and COVID-19 policies, visit wp.MissouriState.edu/Coronavirus.
Registration for 2020 fall semester classes continues through Aug. 16. For more information about fall registration, visit wp.MissouriState.edu/Schedule or call 417-255-7955.
