UK President Eli Capilouto announced the school’s plan for the fall 2020 semester in a June 16 email. The 187-page plan, officially called the “Playbook for Fall 2020,” is a collaborative effort describing the protocols being implemented to have classes while protecting the “health, safety and well-being” of students, faculty and staff, according to the email.
Senior Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development and Associate Professor of Health, Behavior and Society Kathryn Cardarelli, Ph.D., said the safety of the faculty, staff and students is always the top priority of the institution.
“Right now there are conversations going on between faculty and department chairs to try to come up with solutions that will work for students and preserve the safety of our faculty,” Cardarelli said. "So, I imagine what that will look like is some classes will be taught in-person, some taught in a hybrid format and others taught completely online.”
University of Kentucky public health major Emma Gruper, 20, a junior from Crystal Lake, Illinois, said she thinks UK has implemented a well-thought-out plan to handle whatever may happen when classes resume.
“Having students wear masks on campus, as well as having testing available, is a good start to ensure a safe environment,” she said. “In the event students may be sick and need to miss class, I appreciate how they are adding technology into classrooms so those students are able to stay home and still receive the material. I also think it’s great that the university is already prepared with a backup plan in the event it’s not safe for us to continue in-person instruction.”
Some students have opted to not return to campus or put off enrolling and instead take a gap year because of the ongoing pandemic, while others chose to enroll while remaining concerned about the coronavirus. Cardarelli said part of UK’s process for creating a restart plan involves multiple steps of planning with faculty, staff and students engaged in the discussions.
“At each stage of that process we have received feedback from parents of students and students, and we heard a multitude of feedback," she said. "Certainly, there will be some students who will prefer to engage in only remote instruction in the fall and we will be ready to serve those students. We also heard from a lot of students who really wanted that residential college experience, so we’ll be ready to provide that as well.”
Gruper said neither she nor any of her friends considered not returning in the fall.
“When considering how this will affect students during the semester, I think the social aspect is a challenge students will need to overcome,” she said. “All the ways students socialized on campus in the past are going to look completely different. I’m sure studying at Willy T isn’t going to be how it usually is. Clubs, intramural sports and other activities will all have different setups than the way they always have been. I hope this change will not create more stress for students or ruin the college experience for incoming freshmen.”
The school’s academic calendar has also been amended. Classes will begin a week earlier, on Aug. 17, and will end after Thanksgiving. There will be no fall break and final exams will be taken remotely or online.
“With a shortened semester, it becomes difficult for instructors to provide students will all the required material,” Gruper said. “My hopes are all instructors will alter their plans to take some stress off of the students. On the other hand, I do like how we will be done with the semester in early December and final exams will be online.”
For faculty, teaching remotely is challenging so there is an effort being expended now for fall even for those in-person classes in the event the school moves to an all-remote instructional experience, Cardarelli said. The cost of tuition is also being looked at as a result of the changes being implemented.
“There are ongoing discussions, as I understand it, at the university to determine whether or not there will be an increased cost in tuition for those completely remote instructional experiences,” Cardarelli. “I don’t know what the decision is on that one yet.”
Visit uky.edu/coronavirus/ to read the full plan.