Connecticut has a blueprint for reopening colleges and universities to classes this fall. It depends on a bunch of “ifs.”
The blueprint comes in a report released Wednesday. It was written by retired Yale President Rick Levin and Secretary Linda Lorimer for Gov. Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut advisory group.
The report spells out a gradual reopening of campus functions, starting later this month.
But first it assumes several “gating conditions”: The prevalence of Covid-19 considerably lessens. Colleges and universities have enough diagnostic tests and enough support to use them on all students, beginning when they arrive. The state must spell out rules for physical distancing, density of dorms and classrooms. The state must also make sure the schools have enough face masks and other protective equipment. And schools must have plans in place to to monitor and contain the disease’s spread and shut down again if necessary.
If all that is in place, the report advises, then the campuses should reopen in phases: First offices and labs; then, by mid-July, nonresidential educational programs including some pilot programs involving undergraduates living on campus; the, come fall, undergraduate dorms and classes.
Assuming the ifs are met.
A lot is at stake: The education of students, the jobs and health of university workers .… and the local economy of communities like New Haven, where businesses rely on the patronage of tens of thousands of residential students. Statewide, some 45,000 people work at colleges and universities, 190,000 students attend them, and $10 billion flows into the economy as a result.
The report goes into more detail, and notes that each campus will need a customized plan. Click here to read it.
All schools should only reopen for in person learning if the science and medicine professionals decide that they can meet social distancing guidelines in all areas and the virus statistics don't show a resurgence of cases in the fall. Either that or a vaccine or cure is discovered and proven effective and made available to every one. Otherwise schools and students are just massive virus spreaders as every school staff and parent knows.