CHENEY — Eastern Washington University interim President David May has announced a target date of July 1 for the return of university staff to the Cheney campus. The university has already announced it is planning for the possibility of returning to mostly in-person student instruction this fall.
Like the in-person instruction plans, May says everything will depend on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the progression of vaccine administration as the university follows public health guidelines.
Remote instruction continues through winter and spring terms, and EWU expects most summer courses to remain online. But with COVID numbers declining and the vaccine slowly taking hold, May has asked all university staff to prepare a plan for a return to work in July.
“We know that predicting the exact health environment at any given time is a best guess proposition,” May said. “but we must start building a plan to return to our regular work stations so we are prepared to do it right.”
The university is not expecting each person to come to campus on July 1. Instead, managers will coordinate the return of staff so that it is a safe, phased transition with all departments being open to serve students in-person on July 1.
“Just like we did a year ago when we suddenly moved online, we will all need to work together to identify and overcome the challenges ahead as we transition back to campus,” May said.
With the East region now in Phase 2 of Gov. Inslee’s reopening plan, the university is also evaluating options for the possibility of some in-person commencement ceremonies, for both semester and quarter graduates.
May points out concerns about the pandemic remain the top priority, so no firm commitment on commencement can be made at this time.
In announcing the mostly in-person fall instruction plans on Jan. 19, May told the university community that officials were using the Max-Flex approach incorporated in developing instruction for the 2020-2021 school year. Over the course of the year, Eastern has balanced mostly online learning with some classes, such as essential lab courses, that could start in-person and stay in-person unless the state or local public health officials indicated otherwise.
How that model will work for resuming mostly in-person instruction this fall is the subject of ongoing discussions within the university. Under the Max-Flex format, before a class is approved for in-person instruction, faculty prepare a plan for mitigating virus transmission risks which is reviewed by a panel of faculty public health experts and other institutional reviewers. EWU has been providing face masks for students who are taking in-person classes or living on-campus.
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