With the start of the new year, Sharks have returned to campus faced with a year of new opportunities and policies to protect students from the spread of COVID-19.
One of the newest changes at Nova Southeastern University is the removal of the BlendFlex teaching model, which is now only reserved for students with academic accommodations
“Our students overwhelmingly wanted in person classes. They love in person classes, and they enjoy being with our professors in person. Our professors are giving us feedback right now that they find conversations are more robust now,” said Beth Welmaker, executive director of environmental health and safety at NSU.
Classrooms have now returned to pre-pandemic standards with mandatory seating charts in order to perform contact tracing as needed.
“When a student has tested positive, they notify us at covidcase@nova.edu. We look and see what classes the student has attended. There’s a specific timeline you have to look at, based on when they develop symptoms, or when they tested positive,” said Welmaker
With students sitting directly next to each other again, there are procedures in place to notify any students who have either been exposed to in proximity of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
“If we feel that they were in a classroom, under a period of any kind of concern, we identify the students that sat immediately adjacent to the positive case,” Welmaker said. “We notify those students that they have to quarantine, and students that told NSU they’re already vaccinated, have the CDC guidance, if you’re vaccinated, you don’t have to quarantine. But they want you to test three to five days after the exposure.”
The other action the university took is mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all faculty, staff, and temporary employees, with the exception of students who work on campus.
In a July 2021 update, President Hanbury introduced the new policy, which took effect on August 1. The policy provided the same religious and medical exemptions that has been given to students for vaccinations in the past and gave the deadline for when vaccinations needed to be administered, as well as a warning for those who do not comply.
In the end, these policies were instituted to ensure the safety of all who enter campus, and administration has noticed the work the student population has put in while following them.
“We do have to remain vigilant,” Welmaker said. “Our students have been phenomenal, about cooperating and they’re very responsible.”
