‘No Significant Change’ For St. Cloud State’s Fall Plans With Heightened COVID Cases Statewide

(KNSI) – Classes at St. Cloud State University start on August 23rd, and as state and local COVID-19 infections have ticked up in recent weeks, administrators say the school’s previously announced plans for the fall 2021 semester won’t change much.

In a virtual town hall meeting for students Friday, SCSU President Robbyn Wacker says the university is facing a different situation compared to last fall, when COVID-19 vaccinations were not yet available.

“No significant change in our operations; we will continue to deliver instruction as we’ve planned and also hold events, as we’ve talked about,” Wacker said.

Wacker said the balance between in-person and online classes offered at SCSU will be similar to the university’s fall 2019 class format pattern. No changes are expected for classroom seating arrangements, which encourage at least three feet of distance between people.

“There have been some inquiries from faculty wanting to change their teaching modality, say, face-to-face to online synchronous,” Wacker said. “We’re not approving these changes.”

Meanwhile, SCSU does have an indoor face mask requirement in effect for all people on campus, vaccinated or not, following the CDC’s guidance that everyone in high and substantial transmission areas wear masks indoors. Stearns County currently fits the high COVID transmission category.

“We’re going to continue to monitor this, and the [Minnesota State] system has issued guidance that we need 14 consecutive days of one particular transmission rate that will trigger the masking protocol, meaning when the numbers go down to a low transmission rate, we can change the masking protocol,” Wacker said. “I wanted to mention that because I think there’s a misunderstanding out there that we will be wearing masks all fall. That’s not the case.”

Wacker also clarified that Gov. Tim Walz’s vaccination-or-weekly-test mandate does apply to SCSU staff, including student employees.

“The requirements are you show proof of full COVID vaccination or you must be tested at least weekly,” Wacker said. “Now, this goes into effect September 8th — and stay tuned — as you can imagine, we need to sort out the details of how we’re going to navigate this space and how we will operationalize it.”

Separately, the university is planning on offering incentives for students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We’re going to be having a raffle that will have weekly prizes of 25 prizes per week, and then a grand prize of five prizes,” said Interim Assistant Vice President of Safety and Risk Management Steve South. “Students, faculty and staff are eligible to participate in this raffle, and we’re still working on this. There’ll be more details coming soon.”

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