What Will College Campuses In Texas Look Like In COVID Times?
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - While public schools are still grappling with if and when to offer face- to-face instruction, colleges and universities in Texas are moving forward with plans to welcome students in just a few weeks.
SMU announced last night that 90% of its students are preparing to come back to campus.
And Baylor University has plans that include remodeling its campus to create more safe space for students and mandatory COVID-19 testing. Baylor is one of only three Texas universities requiring students to test negative for COVID-19 before being allowed on campus. Forty-two students have contracted the virus so far his year, many of them athletes.
Students who test positive before arriving will have to stay home for 10 days or longer if symptoms don't subside.
Baylor will also offer 10 climate controlled tents around its campus in Waco. And with 18,000 students, the school's vice president said the tents are needed to keep them spread out.
Baylor Vice President Jason Cook said incoming students will also receive masks, sanitizers, a thermometer and information cards when classes begin in only 25 days.
"So we'll have that baseline initial test, we'll also do surveillance testing in sampling throughout the fall semester contact tracing for any positive cases and the people who they may interact with," said Cook.
Other North Texas schools, like TCU announced elevated cleaning procedures that involve high tech electrostatic misting systems.