Schools make plans for the fall

Schools make plans for the fall

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Colleges and universities deal with something they may have never dealt with before: how to educate students in a pandemic.

And with schools' traditional start months away, many are looking at nontraditional ways to provide classes in the fall.

That's our top local story.

In august, tennessee wesleyan university will not only reopen to a record number of enrollment, but also to a changed atmosphere.

Tennessee wesleyan university president dr. harley knowles: "we're not taking anything for granted.

This is really different, obviously, environment.

We've never been in this situation before."

This year orientation will be online.

There will be social distancing in smaller classes, hybrid online learning for larger classes and possibly requiring everyone to wear face masks in class.

But it's not just classes, the school has been looking at how to handle athletics, on campus living and dining and will be doing things like offering to go orders for on campus food options.

Tennessee wesleyan university president dr. harley knowles: "what's critical and what's at the center of all of our decision making of course is the safety of all our employees and of course all of our students as well."

The private university is one of many mapping out plans for the fall.

On wednesday, ut released best practices for reopening ut campuses, recommendation s put together by a task force.

Practices include staggering schedules and class times, hybrid learning, holding smaller classes in larger venues and online instruction for classes of 30 or more.

In a statement, utc officials say "at this point, utc's task force is working on a specific plan for our campus.

Our task force is taking recommendations from the ut system's reopening plan under advisement."

As it's hard to predict what may happen in the future, schools will also have to be prepared for the what if's.

Tennessee wesleyan university president dr. harley knowles: "should there be an outbreak or a state mandate, we'll be prepared to pivot and go online as well and then as soon as we can safely do, we will go back to the more traditional in seat option."

A lee university task force is working on a multi-phase plan with the hopes to have full in- person classes in the fall.

Southern adventist is also developing a plan for an on- campus return in august.

The cdc has released