Florida Universities Firm Up Plans For Fall Reopening
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Preparing to present plans Tuesday to the university system's Board of Governors, leaders of state universities have continued this week to finalize details of how they will reopen campuses for the fall semester.
Representatives of each of the 12 universities are slated to go before the Board of Governors to present plans, which come after campuses were shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The plans deal with a wide range of issues designed to prevent the spread of the virus, with classes offered in person, online, or a combination of both.
Florida State University trustees, for example, approved a plan Thursday that calls for following social-distancing guidelines and requiring face masks.
Classroom capacities will be limited to 25 to 50 percent of students, faculty and assistants at a time, and the university will use an 80-bed residence hall and other smaller facilities to quarantine students who test positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the COVID-19, according to a summary released by the university.
FSU's fall semester will start Aug. 24 and end Dec. 11, but students will not have in-person classes after Thanksgiving break to try to limit the spread of the disease.
"We're confident that if each individual does their part and complies with these new guidelines, it will create a safer and healthier campus environment," FSU President John Thrasher said in a prepared statement.
"At the same time, we all must be flexible and respond accordingly if we discover that circumstances are changing."
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