Elmhurst University announces Fall 2020 reopening
Elmhurst University announced on Aug. 21, students who will be living on-campus must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test before moving in.
In an email sent by COVID-19 taskforce, headed by Phil Riordan and Dean Pribbenow, they stated that testing is going to be offered for free on-campus for students who cannot receive testing before coming to campus.
“To assist with this recommendation, free on-campus testing will be available next Wednesday through Friday (Aug. 26-28) from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. daily,” stated the email. “Testing will take place under white tents in front of Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel.”
Testing will be available to all students and faculty throughout the term, alongside the school’s plan to do random and targeted testing regularly throughout the semester.
This announcement comes after EU released their Bluejays Unite Plan detailing the return to campus and the plans put in place to keep the campus safe.
The plan states that students and faculty should monitor their symptoms every day in order to ensure the campus community is safe.
If a student or faculty member contracts COVID-19, they must report all their symptoms to the online self-reporting form that can be found on the myElmhurst portal.
“COVID-19 symptoms generally appear two to 14 days after exposure. All faculty, staff, and students are expected to screen themselves for COVID-19 symptoms each day before reporting to work or class,” states the BlueJays Unite Plan.
Students and faculty may not come to campus if they show any symptoms such as a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, loss of taste or smell, congestion or runny nose, abnormal or persistent headaches, and chills amongst many other symptoms.
Residential students will be relocated to an on-campus isolation room for 14 days and should contact their professors to arrange plans for their coursework during the isolation period.
“You will be allowed to return to campus after you have been symptom-free for three consecutive days, or with a doctor’s note stating that you may return to work or class,” states the Bluejays Unite Plan. Students who go to the Niebuhr Wellness Center will need to provide a written note from Barbara Wittersheim stating the student is well enough to return to class.
Instruction for the fall is offering courses taught in online, in-person, and hybrid formats as either synchronous or asynchronous. A hybrid course is a course that will be taught online with the class meeting in-person on select days.
Classes assigned as asynchronous means the course will not be meeting at a designated time online or in-person, while asynchronous designation means the course will be meeting at the time displayed on BlueNet, the student portal.
EU will be providing students a reusable cloth mask, a disposable mask, a thermometer, and a 2 oz bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Students are expected to wear a mask on campus unless they are in their own dorm room.