King’s Announces Decision to Reopen Campus for Fall 2020 Semester
Screenshot of the King’s College Website
After a bizarre Spring semester due to the rapid and sudden spread of COVID-19, students have been anxiously awaiting news about the upcoming Fall semester. On July 1, President Gibson sent an email to students releasing the official King’s College Fall 2020 Preliminary Reopening Plan, which explains the new approach to academics to accommodate social distancing guidelines: hybrid learning.
Students will be able to attend one 80 minute in-person class session once per week, for each class, while also engaging in other course content virtually for the remainder of the week’s class time. Additionally, the option to have an entirely online course load remains available for the Fall 2020 semester, but this decision is binding for the semester, and must be requested via the Request for Remote Access Form by August 21.
Learning from the Spring 2020 semester, President Gibson says some activities may remain online, especially after receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on events such as Interregnum. President Gibson sees the opportunity to grow the King’s student body without growing its physical footprint by utilizing online-accessed teaching and events even after the Coronavirus passes.
Among the significant changes in academics, there are several others that affect the day-to-day experience at King’s.
The stairwells between the fifth and sixth floors will be opened for students in order to lessen the use of the elevators due to social distancing requirements. One stairwell will be for traffic walking up, and the other will be used for traffic walking down.
The 10-minute breaks between classes have been increased to 15 minutes to accommodate this change and ensure safe transitions between classes. Nonetheless, the Reopening Plan advises students to plan ahead in order to arrive on time.
The only entrance to The King’s College will be the main door at 56 Broadway where students, staff, faculty and visitors will be screened. The back entrances through 52 Broadway and 50 Broadway are prohibited. However, the ground floor entrance on Broad Street remains open. Put simply, President Gibson says, “Do what you normally do.”
Masks covering the nose and mouth will be required as part of the business casual dress code while on campus. No written messaging, logos, etc. may be displayed. Masks may only be removed on campus when the student or faculty member remains stationary while keeping a proper social distance of six feet. During classes, they may only be removed at the professor’s discretion. Students will also wipe down their desks prior to the class with provided cleaning supplies.
For the remaining portion of their remote learning, students are expected to maintain a professional appearance and keep their cameras on for the duration of the class to be counted as present.
President Gibson expects that the student body will adjust very well to these changes. He says it’s the responsible reality regardless of where you’d be going to school. He also has high hopes for the incoming freshmen class, describing them as “adaptable” and “particularly intrepid young people.”