3:06pm: Hotline with Dave Weekley

Marshall officials confident in plan for normal fall semester with face-to-face courses

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Jaime Taylor, the Marshall University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs said the state’s trajectory with COVID-19 vaccinations and case totals are behind the university’s announcement that the fall is being planned for a near-normal term with face-to-face courses.

Marshall President Jerome Gilbert and university officials made the announcement on Monday that health and safety and academic committees have been working to develop scenarios and recommendations for the fall term, aimed at ensuring the safety of students and employees.

Taylor said the university wanted to give students as much advance notice as possible to plan decisions for the 2021 fall term.

Jaime Taylor

“With the way things are rolling out in the state of West Virginia with vaccines and the great job the state is doing, we felt comfortable that right now that is our plan. We feel comfortable we should get back to a normal situation this fall,” Taylor told MetroNews.

As of Tuesday, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) confirmed a seven-week downward trend of active COVID-19 case numbers continued with 6,692 in the state. That figure had been over 29,000 in early January.

More than 300,000 first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in West Virginia as of Tuesday and the DHHR reported 197,759 people fully vaccinated.

According to Marshall University’s COVID-19 dashboard, 892 faculty and staff have been fully vaccinated as of February 25. 1,364 first doses have been administered as of February 25. A total of 1,793 Marshall employees requested vaccination through the three surveys in December and earlier in February. Taylor said the university is confident every staff member who wants a vaccine will receive on well before the fall.

Since February 16, Marshall has recorded 15 new cases of the virus among students and four among staff.

“As vaccinations become more available and the positivity rate drops, we will move toward resuming pre-pandemic activities and behaviors,” Gilbert said in a release Monday. “I am confident we are seeing the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and I’m ready, like all of us, to return to a level of normalcy in the fall.”

VIEW: Marshall’s COVID-19 dashboard

Taylor said there was a small dip in enrollment over the past academic year at Marshall, as the university offered only in-person courses for freshmen and those in lab courses. Synchronous courses, such as Zoom and Team structured, were the main learning outlets for students.

He said the fall plan will be to get back to standard room capacities and may offer a handful of the synchronous courses for the convenience of students.

Taylor said there is a lot of value with in-person courses and the out-of-class experience on campus.

“When they are face to face, I think students feel more comfortable asking questions and raising their hands. Additionally, there are interactions that take place before the class gets started. Students and faculty may meet before or even after class,” Taylor told MetroNews.

SPRING COMMENCEMENT

In addition to the fall semester announcement, Gilbert announced the university’s spring 2021 commencement ceremony will be an in-person event on Saturday, May 1, at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium with pandemic health and safety precautions in place.

The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m., rain or shine, although in the case of continuing thunderstorms, Sunday, May 2, will serve as the alternate date. To maintain appropriate social distancing, each participating graduate will be provided with four (4) tickets for guests, a release said. Masks will be required for everyone in attendance.

Students planning to participate in the ceremony are asked to review graduation information with their individual academic colleges and to check with the registrar’s office for more information, Marshall said.





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