Safety A Priority As Students Return To Campus

Megan Reyna learned what safety measures are in place for students who are returning to Athens State University in the fall semester.

Return to campus come fall.

Waay31's megan reyna learned what safety measures are now in place for students megan says:"some students actually returned back to the classroom last month for summer courses, but as you can see there have been some significant changes."

Latham says:"those include plexiglass between rows of desks, we have the desks arranged, and the seating arranged where people can maintain the social distancing requirements and then we have hand sanitizer stations in most public areas and all of the buildings on campus."

All of these adjustments cost the university more than 65-thousand dollars so far.

Chris latham with the university said the school's holding the majority of summer classes online - but expect more in person classes this fall.

Latham says:"faculty members are being involved in making that determination whether courses can be held virtually or not, but of course, some programs require in person instruction for the students to really meet the learning outcomes for the programs."

Latham expects about 3- thousand students to enrol this fall.

With a smaller university -- it makes it easier to social distance.

Latham says:"we have a 15 to 1 student faculty ratio, so our class size is already very small, and we think that will also help so our students can spread out and not be congregated, they can maintain those social distancing requirements and before the pandemic hit -- a lot students already took advantage of online courses.

Latham says:"91 percent of students have taken at least one online class, so we feel like we are a leading in online education as is, so that helps the situation for us."

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