LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) -- Plans are in the works to bring students back to the University of Kentucky's campus in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
UK called its fall semester a success and hopes to emulate that in the spring. While leaders said they are proud of how they kept students, faculty and staff safe during the fall, they said there is room for improvement.
“We’ll be doing communication over the break about that, outlining to our entire community what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, how we have to work together to keep each other safe,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said.
As the university works on its plan to return in a few weeks, it said it will have an emphasis on more testing.
Although UK mandated every on-campus student to be tested upon entry, randomly tested other students and tested wastewater, it said it has to be more frequent.
“A plan that we’ll announce in the next few weeks will include entry testing again, mandatory for all students, the availability of testing as faculty and staff want to use it for free, but then more testing throughout the rest of the semester,” Blanton said.
UK also admits there needs to be more communication about protocols, restrictions and education about the virus itself. It said it learned not every student or organization will follow those guidelines.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was recently suspended for two years from the university after it was found the fraternity violated COVID-19 protocols and the student code of conduct.
“When we have those rare instances where an organization doesn’t do the right thing, we have to take these measures sometimes," Blanton said. "That’s what happened here.”
UK had only around 500 reports of coronavirus-related issues in the fall. About 100 of those were what UK calls "findings of responsibility." It said the issues were mostly a the lack of education that led students to not following guidelines, something UK plans to emphasize moving forward.
“Those regulations were put in place to protect our students, to protect our community,” Blanton said.
After a successful fall semester, UK hopes that what it learned will make the spring even safer.
“We feel good about the approach we took in the fall and the approach we plan to take again in the spring,” Blanton said.
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