The University of Southern Indiana has announced its reopening plans.
USI officials conducted a news conference via Zoom, in which University President Ron Rochon announced a new budget…
"The Board of Trustees has provided me with the authority to have an interim operating budget for 2020-2021 which will allow us to provide normal rate of pay to every USI citizen up until December 31st."
Officials confirmed that the campus will reopen to staff and the public July 6th, with commencement ceremonies for 2020 graduates planned over three days, August 14th to the 16th, with limited ticketing.
USI’s fall semester will be a mix of online and in-person classes, with all courses shifting online after Thanksgiving.
Campus housing will be restricted to 85 percent capacity, leaving individual rooms available for possible COVID-19 quarantining.
President Rochon said there will be no mandate for social distancing or wearing face masks…
"So we are not mandating anything along the lines of a face covering but we are strongly encouraging all members of our community to wear one. I will stress this also: as we get closer to August, we may see that we as a campus need to pivot. Which direction, we don’t know."
Rochon emphasized “safety first” because there’s still a lot that’s not known about COVID-19…
"One thing we understand is that we can make no promises and no assurances. We do not see this biology, we can't control this biology, but we can learn from other experts around the globe on how best to mitigate this biology and that's what we’re doin’."
JG