RWU, Salve working on protocols to reopen campus in the fall

Updated at 3:57 p.m. on March 7, 2020.

ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY is working on protocols in order to return to campus life next fall. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY is working on plans to allow the school to return to campus life next fall. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY

BRISTOL – Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University have joined the growing list of local colleges announcing their intentions to return to campus life in the fall after closing their campuses this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

RWU Chief of Staff Brian Williams said in an email Thursday that the university’s faculty and staff are working with new models and fast-tracking the approval of models so that they will be in place for the fall. Williams said geography, as well as student circumstances such as financial hardships or safety, will affect certain students’ ability to return to campus.

“That means universities won’t reopen colleges, students will,” Williams said.

Among the protocols RWU is considering for reopening include helping students build their own semester experience through “hybrid academic models,” which blend in-person courses and online studies,” Williams said. Another possible protocol Williams noted is students can choose a structured gap year, allowing students to earn credit through work experience.

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A “Civic Scholars” experimental project, in which students could earn course credit while under a professor’s guidance while working with an organization or community partner to help rebuild the economy, is also being vetted by RWU administration as an option for students, Williams said.

“By giving students and families choices over when they start and how they want to engage with their education, we are offering them options and control when they have so little of each right now,” Williams said. “No matter what their current circumstances, we are developing pathways for them to remain connected to RWU and to their education, and we will welcome them to campus when they are ready.”

Williams said RWU expects to share its new model designs in June and have them implemented by July.

Additionally, RWU is working with state officials and other universities to plan for a “safe, collaborative reopening of college campuses,” Williams said. The university is also exploring coronavirus testing and tracing strategies, Williams said, addding that RWU can tap into its faculty expertise and develop protocols that will be consistent with state public health initiatives.

“It is only through an early, proactive testing and tracing culture that we can mitigate and contain spread of positive cases to avoid things escalating to a fall semester closure,” Williams said.

Salve Regina University:

In a letter to the community on Thursday, Salve President Kelli J. Armstrong said that the university is instituting measures to ensure “the safest possible” setting for the campus community. All academic and student-life environments at Salve will be evaluated in order to follow social-distancing guidelines, Armstrong said.

In order to prepare all of the campus buildings for reopening, all summer events and programs on the Salve campus have been postponed, Armstrong said. She also said Salve will develop contingency plans for “all possible outcomes” of the virus to ensure the university provides “the best academic experience in the safest possible setting.”

“I know that there has been a great deal of uncertainty in these unprecedented times,” Armstrong said. “We will do everything in our power to adapt to whatever is ahead, and our close, caring community allows us to be nimble and responsive.”

Brown University, Bryant University, Community College of Rhode Island and Wheaton College have all recently announced their respective intentions to reopen campus life in the fall.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

This story has been updated to include Salve Regina University’s announcement of plans for the fall semester.

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