by Dr. Gordon Gee
For more than 150 years, Morgantown has welcomed students back to campus each fall. Admittedly, this rite of passage will be unlike any before. The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our world, and West Virginia University is transforming to protect the health and safety of the community while giving our students the best possible educational experience.
The big blue tent that inhabited the Coliseum parking lot for weeks is one signpost of this change. A steady flow of faculty, students and staff — including me — have taken the COVID test that is mandatory for anyone returning to campus. Our testing protocols have been nothing short of exceptional. And we have equally robust policies and procedures in place to mitigate and confine any potential spread.
You will see fewer students on campus this fall. Most courses for upperclassmen will be offered online or in hybrid mode, while we help our freshmen launch their Mountaineer journey smoothly and successfully in the classroom. Many faculty and staff members also will continue to work from home, reducing density on campus and making it easier to enforce the social distancing that inhibits COVID transmission.
The university is adjusting everything from our transportation options to our dining venues to our cleaning regimens to make campus as safe as possible.
All faculty, staff and students must complete a COVID-19 education module; must wear masks or face coverings on campus; must follow detailed university policies for avoiding contact with others after a positive COVID test or close contact with an infected person; and must adhere to all local, state and federal physical distancing and maximum crowd size orders.
We know that student house parties and other large gatherings could increase spread of COVID-19, and we will not tolerate these negative behaviors that put our entire community at risk.
Many people are quick to assume that college students cannot act with the maturity and conscientiousness these times demand. By treating our students as intelligent young adults, I believe our university can help them stand strong as they manage their way through this crisis.
While the university is taking all precautions to make the campus as safe as possible, we cannot eliminate all risks. Are we going to have outbreaks? We might. Are we going to have spikes that come in unusual ways? We might.
We cannot eliminate the virus and its impact on the university and larger community, but we can manage it in a way that promotes health and safety for everyone and hastens our return to more normal lives.
As a land-grant university with Research 1 status and a comprehensive academic medical center, West Virginia University has been totally embedded with state government in fighting the pandemic. Gov. Jim Justice made our vice president and executive dean for health sciences, Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar. In that role, Marsh has advocated for data-driven public policies that have helped to minimize the percentage of citizens testing positive for the virus.
We have had wonderful support from local and state leaders as we strategize to protect all local citizens, as well as our university family. I cannot thank Gov. Justice enough for having the courage to require mandatory mask wearing and to close the bars in Morgantown when COVID cases started increasing. That latter action immediately diminished the prevalence of the virus in our community.
Together, we can continue to protect our family, friends and neighbors if we commit to making good choices and adhering to safety protocols. Planning for this semester has not been simple but ways to minimize COVID-19 risk can be: Wear your mask or face covering, maintain as much physical distance as much as possible and wash your hands often.
You can learn much more about COVID-19 at coronavirus.wvu.edu and West Virginia University’s response to it at wvu.edu/return-to-campus.
As members of this community, you are members of our Mountaineer family. Like any family, Mountaineers take care of each other. We support each other.
And during these extraordinary — but temporary — times, I believe all Mountaineers will rise to the challenge of doing what is right.
Dr. Gordon Gee is the president of West Virginia University.
