All three University of Arkansas at Monticello campuses will open for the fall semester with classes resuming on campus August 19. Social distancing measures will be in place.
“Our first concern as a university is always the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff,” said UAM Chancellor Peggy Doss.
Doss said a plan devised by a pandemic response committee prioritizes the safe reopening of all three UAM campuses and emphasizes its fluidity in a rapidly changing environment. Administration will consider updating the plan to follow current guidance from the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Arkansas Department of Health, as well as federal, state, and local policies.
Key components of the plan include frequent disinfecting of all spaces and educating personnel at each campuses on methods of limiting potential spread of the coronavirus.
At this time, all students, faculty and staff are required to wear a face covering whenever social distancing cannot be achieved on campus. The university will provide one mask to each employee and student, and encourages rotating with clean masks and following CDC-recommended disinfecting practices.
The academic calendar has the potential to move to 100 percent remote instruction for the portion of the semester that follows Thanksgiving break.
“We will work together as we continue to move into an unprecedented, but not insurmountable, fall term,” Doss said, adding that it is the shared responsibility of all students, faculty and staff to unite in a commitment to the reopening plan’s guidelines.
