LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Spring semester kicks off soon for many Kentucky colleges and universities, and they are taking steps to keep students and faculty on campus despite surging COVID-19 cases.
The University of Louisville is maintaining its protocols from last semester: masking indoors, mandated testing for unvaccinated students or staff, and quarantine protocols will follow current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It's so important that UofL stay open," said Kevin Gardner, a vice president for research innovation at UofL. "We have a such an important mission to accomplish, and the young people in our world -- the K-12 students, the college students -- have already paid a heavy price in COVID."
Gardner said the protective measures were incredibly effective in the fall.
"For example, we have all of these rooms set aside for isolation and quarantine," he said. "In the fall, they were pretty unoccupied. We had a lot of extra space, so we never came close to reaching a max. We never had what we would consider some kind of major outbreak on campus or anything like that."
Gardner said there are some concerns with the omicron variant as far as trying to ensure not too many faculty or staff are sick at once.
"Individually, it's super low-risk. But societally it's a big problem," he said. "We're concerned about just making sure we can keep the university operating properly and efficiently and safely."
But Gardner said he ultimately feels confident about the steps they're taking.
"We feel like the measures that are in place will be successful as they have in the past," he said.
Northern Kentucky University, in light of current case numbers in their region being the highest they've ever seen, took things another step.
"We made a decision, (and) I think it was the wisest decision we could make," said Matt Cecil, provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at NKU. "None of the choices were great."
Finals will take place the week after graduation, which will remain on the same date as planned, as will spring break.
"We were conscious people have made plans for those kinds of things," Cecil said.
Cecil said beyond the delay, faculty have been encouraged to consider hybrid lesson plans for the first couple weeks.
"By delaying courses and then doing hybrid, we think we get ourselves through January, which the experts tell us should get us toward the end of this omicron wave," he said.
The hope being in February that campus can mostly resume as normal, with masking and other basic COVID-19 protocols in place.
"We could have gotten totally virtual as many universities have, but students have told us they don't like that," Cecil said. "And frankly, they don't necessarily trust us to move back into the classroom after we moved to virtual, and I don't blame them. It's not a good experience for them, and we want to be back in our classrooms as soon as we can."
Cecil said he understands a week delay isn't ideal but hopes people will understand.
"This is no fun for anyone," he said. "This is frustrating for everyone. But ultimately, we want our students to succeed."
UofL will start its spring semester Jan. 10. NKU will begin Jan. 18. The University of Kentucky's spring semester starts Jan. 10, and you can find its COVID-19 protocols here. Indiana University will also resume Jan. 10, and plans to keep its same measures in place. Learn more here.
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