TAMPA, Fla — Colleges and universities across the country are making adjustments after clusters of coronavirus outbreaks on campuses. USF heads back very soon.
UNC Chapel Hill had to move online after hundreds of students were forced into quarantine.
Notre Dame is canceling in-person classes for at least two weeks; and more than 150 students at Colorado College are quarantined after a student tested positive, then went back to campus.
How is USF preparing for students? The university is doing a lot to get ready.
To start with, there are nearly 48,000 pieces of signage and decals to remind students and staff of how to prevent the spread of the virus.
Buildings and classrooms have been rearranged to allow for social distancing.
More than 900 plexiglass partitions have been installed at reception desks, cashier locations and other points of service.
And faculty staff and students must wear face coverings when around others.
Students who live in the dorms will also be asked to get tested before they return.
Donna Petersen, chair of the Coronavirus Task Force and dean of the College of Public Health says if you're in the community wearing green and gold, you need to be a role model.
"We've tried to impress upon everyone in our community that we are part of a larger community and just because you are off our campus, you still have to follow the same rules because we're trying to prevent the spread of a virus which doesn't care if you're on campus or not."
This is how USF has been tracking any case of coronavirus among members of the community who choose to tell them they are positive.
Remember, they've been remote since march. On the 18th, it reported, two USF campus students were isolating and so was a USF Health employee.
Again, they chose to update since they're remote.
This helps give USF a sense of what's going on in the larger community. And then this is in place for when people return to campus.
Dean Peterson tells me they feel very well prepared for the upcoming year and if there are cases, they can respond.
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