New Procedures, Precautions in Place for Fall 2020 at Buffalo State
In just a few weeks, Buffalo State College will welcome a new class of freshmen to campus, along with many transfer students and returning upperclassmen. Classes will commence in a mix of in-person, hybrid, and online learning. Some students will move into the residence halls, and new friendships will blossom.
The campus and its many services will not look as they did at the beginning of 2020. Since the coronavirus entered our lives, the college has made countless adjustments to provide coursework and services to students remotely and keep safety at the forefront.
“I’m beyond proud of how the faculty rose to the challenge in just a few short weeks to transition to an online format,” said Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner. “And I have faith that they, along with our staff and students, can continue to adjust to the new reality facing us this fall.”
Throughout the summer, the Instructional Design and Training and the Teaching and Learning Center teams have developed a number of trainings to get faculty up to speed for the coming semester, in which 70 percent of classes will be offered online. Ongoing workshops for faculty can be accessed through the Workshop Registration System.
“While I’m looking forward to a gradual and careful return to campus this fall, I want to remind everyone that we take this pandemic seriously,” Conway-Turner said. “Buffalo State’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Team has worked diligently this summer to create a return-to-campus plan that follows best practices from the New York State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; however, I want to emphasize that the responsibility to remain COVID-free falls to each of us. We all have to do our part.”
Faculty, staff, and students will be expected to self-monitor for symptoms before coming to campus, wear the required face coverings or masks whenever they are on campus, practice social distancing at all times, practice good hygiene on a consistent basis, and stay home and immediately notify campus officials if they have any of the main symptoms associated with the coronavirus.
All the rules and procedures created for the Buffalo State campus this fall can be found within the Restart Plan, located on the college’s Coronavirus Information website.
In addition, over the next two weeks, the Marketing and Communications Office will produce a series of stories addressing how various services and aspects of campus life will look in fall 2020. While many will touch on the college’s efforts to transform classroom instruction, the following stories will cover other aspects of campus life:
- Residence Life
- Academic Commons/E. H. Butler Library
- Campus Dining
- Student Wellness
- Cleaning and Sanitation
- Student Life
- Community Service and Civic Engagement
The stories will outline what is changing and what will stay the same, what services will be offered in person or in an online format, and what steps the campus is taking to ensure the safest atmosphere possible when Buffalo State embarks on a new academic year. Throughout the semester, we will also highlight some of the unique ways that faculty members are teaching and connecting with our students.
Photo by Bruce Fox, campus photographer.
