‘No easy choices.’ Testing, masks key to reopening KY’s small private colleges

When Transylvania University announced that the remainder of the last academic year would be taught remotely due to COVID-19, freshman education major Elia Zonio had just submitted her observation hours the day before.

“I had just gotten all my hours in the day before Transy announced that we were closed for the rest of the semester,” Zonio said. “If you didn’t get all ten hours in, you could write a reflection on that or you could choose to write a philosophy of education.”

Like many students, Zonio is preparing to return to college in the fall amid the pandemic that closed the university in the spring. She said the switch to online learning was easy for her since some of her professors did not hold class meetings over Zoom or other video conference platforms.

“I felt like it was obvious that these classes weren’t designed to be online,” Zonio said. “The professors were kind of like, ‘Okay, here’s what we’re going to do for the last few weeks.’”

As students like Zonio across the state plan to return to in-person instruction amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there is one issue that every college is facing — testing. While larger state schools such as the University of Kentucky have unveiled big plans for testing, smaller colleges are also dedicating resources to monitoring the spread of the virus.

One such school is Georgetown College, which will require everyone to submit a negative test result before being allowed back on campus.

“Following the guidelines from the CDC, all faculty, staff, and students will need to agree to testing to return to campus,” the college’s website said. “Additional testing may be required through the semester if faculty, staff, or students have symptoms, or are known to have been exposed.”

Johnathan Sands Wise, vice president for Enrollment at Georgetown, said the college is exploring different testing methods to keep students safe, such as pooled testing, rapid testing and even testing members of the campus community if they have come in contact with someone who tested positive for the disease.

“There are no easy choices right now and we’re taking the responsibility very seriously and trying to complete our mission safely in a very difficult time,” Wise said.

Georgetown is not the only college planning mass testing on campus for the fall. Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia will enact on-site testing and is making campus employees and students sign a pledge promising to do their part to limit the spread of the virus.

“We’re trying to take every precaution that we can to provide a safe environment for our students to return here,” LWC president Bill Luckey said. “[Students] are going to have to do their part.”

According to the pledge, students and employees must promise to monitor their temperature daily, wear a facial covering when required and acknowledge that LWC cannot guarantee immunity from “health-related impacts” of the disease. If someone does not follow the pledge, they will have to finish the semester remotely.

Colleges are also exploring different ways aside from testing to keep their campuses safe. Transy, UC, Asbury, LWC, Georgetown and Bellarmine University in Louisville will all require masks to be worn in common areas.

Jason Cissell, assistant vice president of Strategic & Integrated Communication for Bellarmine, said the facial coverings will be required in public areas.

“We’re confident that our plans will allow us to maintain our commitment to a robust, personalized academic experience while protecting everyone’s health and safety,” Cissell said.

Like Western Kentucky University, Bellarmine will work through Labor Day and fall break, with in-person instruction ending before Thanksgiving and students finishing the semester remotely.

In a YouTube video addressed to the campus community, Bellarmine University president Susan M. Donovan applauded students and faculty for moving to online learning during the spring semester.

Connor Kissel, a junior music technology major at Bellarmine University in Louisville, said the hardest class during the shift to online learning was music theory.

“Our professor... was very accommodating,” Kissel said. “But for me personally I struggled to get the concepts as much because I didn’t have someone that I had to ask for a question — had to email.”

Kissel said they are worried about going back to in-person learning this fall. Most of their classes are larger in size and they are interested to see how rigorously the university is planning to enforce protective guidelines. Additionally, Kissel said some of their friends are worried about returning to campus.

“Some of the were worried about, ‘am I just going to get to campus and then turn around and have to leave again,’” Kissel said. “Last semester some of my friends had a lot of trouble with figuring out how they were getting home.”

Bellarmine University will open its doors to in-person instruction on Aug. 20.

“Students and Faculty have stayed connected online, and excellent teaching and learning have continued during the pandemic,” Donovan said in the video. “But the greatest conversations and connections in college happen best in person.”

University of the Cumberlands will split undergraduate classes into two eight-week bi-terms and will conclude its semester on Dec. 11.

“Students will continue to enroll in four or five courses each semester, but those courses will be divided into two or three courses per bi-term,” the university’s restart plan said. “The 8-week class format provides flexibility while also allowing students to focus on fewer classes at a time.”

UC will also move to a hybrid setup for classes. Larry Cockrum, president of the university, wrote in a statement to the campus about the upcoming semester.

“Our students keep telling us that they want to be on campus this fall for the traditional college experience,” Cockrum said in the statement. “We believe a hybrid learning model provides the best opportunity for bringing students back to campus and reducing potential exposure to the novel coronavirus.”

UC is also encouraging its community to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19. If a member of the UC community tests positive, UC “requires all campus community members to participate in contact tracing if an individual tests positive.”

Transy will move to a modulated schedule. Normally, students take four classes each semester and one in May. This year though, the calendar will be broken into six modules.

The first module will be First Engagements, an orientation program for first-year students. Student-athletes will also move in during this module. The second and third modules will be Transy’s normal fall semester, with four and five in the spring. The sixth module is Transy’s normal May term.

Megan Moloney, vice president of Marketing and Communications for Transy, said the new plan takes some of the course load off students, while still getting the same course credit.

“The modular calendar gives us a few points during the term to — if needed — make a shift partway through the semester,” Moloney said. “One of the concerns some students had with the end spring semester is that it was harder to manage four or five classes in a remote setting. Instead, our students will only have two classes at a time this academic year.”

Higher education is also grappling with the financial costs of COVID-19. Several schools — such as Transy and Georgetown — have been able to avoid employee layoffs and furloughs.

Lindsey Wilson has also not had to furlough or lay off any employees to save money. Luckey credited this to the college’s strong performance in recent years, with both spring 2020 and summer 2020 enrollment breaking records for the college. Transy and Georgetown have also avoided any layoffs or furloughs.

“This hit us at a time when we were hitting on all cylinders,” Luckey said. “So if we were ever prepared financially to absorb the kind of blow that we’ve absorbed, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

Bellarmine implemented some employee furloughs in the summer, although there have been no permanent changes due to the pandemic.

“We’ve been fairly stable, all things considered,” Cissell said. “Our focus has been more on student financial hardships, partly through an alumni fundraising campaign to replenish and extend our student emergency fund.”

Cumberlands had no comment on its financial situation.

Jennifer McChord, director of Strategic Communications for Asbury University in Wilmore, said a “small” number of faculty were let go, but did not provide any further information.

This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 10:45 AM.