UHCL reveals plans for Fall 2021 semester
UHCL administrators plan on the university operating at 100% capacity for the Fall 2021 semester. Additionally, UHCL will offer the most in-person services since the Spring 2020 semester before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This next step in UHCL’s reopening plan entails every department in the university to transition to on-campus services and programming including the instruction of face-to-face classes and student-centered services open for in-person appointments.
Al Black, director of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and emergency management, said the hope is to open to 100% in the fall, but it is not a guarantee.
EHS and Emergency Management work to identify potential safety hazards and ensure the safety of the UHCL community. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and his department have monitored COVID-19 infection rates to determine the safest course for campus operations.
“Some time during the summer we are going to move to the next code or category in our reopening plan,” Black said. “[That] would be Code 3, which allows more people on campus. It’s a hope. It’s not certain.”
Black said the university will be working between May and August to work on moving toward Code 3. During this time, the university will observe COVID-19 infection rates while also encouraging individuals on campus to wear masks.
“From now until July, we will be assessing the situation with the hope that the university can open up to Code 3 the first week of August,” Black said. “The target date is the first week of August.”
As of May 18, Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order, EO-GA-36, that prohibits UHCL from requiring masks.
“No governmental entity, including a county, city, school district, and public health authority, and no governmental official may require any person to wear a face covering or to mandate that another person wear a face covering.”
Plans for return include in-person and virtual academic offerings
As of May 10, the university offers 959 face-to-face classes for the fall semester. This is an increase from 229 in Spring 2021 and 59 in Summer 2021.
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Steven Berberich said the fall plans of operation represent the university’s long-intended plan to return to pre-pandemic modes of education with the chance that the university will offer more online classes than in pre-pandemic times.
“We have roughly 59% of our classes that will be face to face, 13% will be hybrid, and 28% will be online,” Berberich said. “That’s the way the schedule looks at this moment.”
Berberich said there will still be more online classes than there might normally be pre-pandemic because of the ongoing pandemic.
Tim Richardson, associate vice president of student success and initiatives, said the Student Success Center and other academic support services will have in-person services in addition to virtual services.
“We cannot go back exactly to how things were in 2019,” Richardson said. “Those [virtual] services are not going to go away. Those modes are definitely going to stay.”
Departments that will offer both virtual and in-person services include the Writing Center, the Student Success Center, the Advising Center, the Math Center and Accessibility and Support Center. Virtual services provided by UHCL academic support services will continue in the fall semester.
“If you are in a calculus class and you want to come into the Math Center [for help] you can do that,” Richardson said. “If you do not, or cannot, we have online resources and access to those services that will be available. So you definitely have a choice.”
Berberich said such multiple modes represent what the university has learned from the pandemic in how to ensure services are always available to students.
“We are building upon what was learned during the pandemic,” Berberich said. “We are making sure students can utilize these services both face to face and online.”
Fall semester plans for other Texas universities
Administrators’ plans for a return to in-person are in line with the plans of other local universities.
“We are planning on doing face-to-face in the fall but we will still be watching throughout the summer to determine if we will do face to face,” Black said. “Almost every university in Texas is going back to face to face as early as June. What we are doing is planning on sticking to the bimodal modal through summer and then slowly bringing employees [back to campus].”
Current vaccination rates and CDC predictions factored in the plan to open to full capacity in the fall.
“Our biggest thing that made us feel like we could do that is that Harris County is very much getting inoculated and vaccinated,” Black said. “All predictions from the government and CDC are showing we will have at least 30-50% herd immunity.”
Summer 2021 determines Fall 2021 status
The summer semester will help determine how the university implements its Fall 2021 plans and how the university will transition to normal capacity through the summer. UHCL will allow more in-person events on campus throughout the summer, with participants encouraged to wear masks.
“This summer we are going to start lowering social distancing,” Black said. “We plan to make social distancing be 3 feet instead of 6 feet.
“It’s a very fluid situation. I want to make sure people know that. Nothing is written in stone but we are watching it throughout the summer so I ask that people bear with us through this process.”
UHCL is prepared if, and when, another surge of COVID-19 hits the local area.
“The intent here is that if we start to see things indicate situations are going to get worse, faculty know in their ability to teach now that all of our classrooms are set up for recordings…so we are already set up if we need to,” Berberich said. “We may have a short period of time where things will need to move online.”
Additionally, the university is looking at hospitalization and infection rates for Harris County, both of which are down from this time last year. UHCL did not have any outbreaks and the university had record low numbers of cases compared to other UH schools.
There are currently no plans to require vaccinations
As of May 4, the university will not require vaccinations for students’ return to campus. This plan echoes the federal government and the state of Texas not yet deeming vaccinations a requirement for other ventures.
“We are a state school and the governor has said he is not going to require vaccinations and the chancellor of the UH System, [Renu] Khator, has echoed this attitude,” Black said. “What they have said is showing they will not require vaccinations.”
The university has begun making vaccines available on campus for the UHCL community. Black is currently working on a memorandum of understanding that will partner the university with an outside party to ensure on-campus vaccine availability.
“I’d like to thank everybody,” Black said. “This has been a hard and stressful year. Our positive rate has been below 200 people for the whole year since March 2020 and no other UH has that record. We also have not had any outbreaks on campus so I would like to thank everyone for doing what is needed to ensure that.”
