🔒Q&A: What the pandemic made permanent at Anna Maria College

Like the majority of Central Massachusetts colleges, Anna Maria College decided to open its campus for the fall semester, with enhanced safety measures to protect against the coronavirus. The college is taking lessons learned for the spring semester, even as COVID cases spike nationwide; and it plans to keep a number of measures, even after the pandemic is over. 

What safety measures were made?

We’ve had a planning team, which has met since March in preparation for returning to campus for the fall semester.

For anyone who comes on campus – including staff, faculty and students, we are testing twice per week. Students did have the option to not come to campus, though. They could do remote learning where they could learn on their own time, or they could do synchronous learning online with the students in the classroom.

We put in 150 more hand sanitizing stations. We put sanitizing wipes in every classroom, so anyone could wipe down their desk. We hired more cleaning crews to clean high-touch areas frequently. We bring in an overnight cleaning crew to do electrostatic cleaning. We discourage face-to-face meetings. We put building flow in place, so you have to follow specific flow patterns in the building. We have social distancing for high-traffic areas.

We require masks on campus. The only time people are allowed to not wear masks are when students are alone in their dorm rooms, or when faculty or staff are alone in their offices. Also, people didn’t have to wear masks while they were eating, showering or bathing.

How many people tested positive?

We did really well. We were at a case per week or a case every other week for the majority of the semester. For the week or two after Halloween, we started to see an uptick, along with the rest of Worcester County. Two weeks ago, we decided not to allow commuters on campus, although resident students could stay.

We are done with in-person learning for the fall semester. All the students had to be out of the residence halls by Thanksgiving. We did all online classes for the culmination of the semester. That was the plan all along. We didn’t want people to be on break for a long Thanksgiving and then get sick when they got back.

What’s the plan for the spring semester?

We pushed it a little bit out, in order to lessen the impact of the cold and flu season. Typically, we start the second or third week of January. This year, we are starting Feb. 8 and then going into May.

Another thing we implemented for fall semester that will carry into spring is changes to our dining. We are using Open Table, which is technology for restaurant reservations, in order to minimize the number of people in the dining hall. That helps our cleaning crews as well.

We allow for takeout in the dining hall, too. We didn’t typically allow that, but if students weren’t comfortable eating in the dining hall, we wanted to offer that. We implemented what we called The Hub. It is a grab-and-go place to eat, with online ordering-only.

How about in the classrooms?

One thing we added toward the end of the fall was putting air-quality monitors in our classrooms. That gives us CO2 and air quality levels. We did it because we were concerned with heating the classrooms, because we have to keep the windows open in order to allow for air flow. But as it got cold, that became problematic because if it gets too cold, you can’t learn effectively. As long as the CO2 and the air quality is below a certain level, we can close the windows and heat the classrooms.

Will you require COVID vaccines?

We are still talking about whether it will be required. We don’t think they will necessarily have it in time. For people who do get the vaccine, we will still require masks. We are talking about not requiring testing for people who get the vaccine, since that could lead to false positives.

After the pandemic is over, will you keep these measures in place?

For dining, we will keep the online ordering and the reservation systems. We will keep the air-quality monitors in the classrooms. We’ll keep the cleaners on, too. We will keep the technology we offered in the classroom, giving the students the ability to synchronous learn online, although we might break it out into separate classes for in-person and online learners.

This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.