Fall semester starting early at Iowa State, UNI; students will be expected to wear face masks in classes

Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa students will be expected to wear face coverings when classes resume in the fall. 

Classes at both universities will include fewer students to accommodate social distancing recommendations, and the semester will begin a week earlier and end before Thanksgiving to reduce the movement of students on and off campus.

These are some of the changes the universities announced Wednesday as they prepare to restart in-person classes for the fall semester. 

"Although it will not be possible to mitigate every risk, every person must contribute to reducing those risks," Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen wrote in a letter to students and staff. "Physical distancing and the wearing of face coverings when in class or shopping at stores, or when we’re around others, will be expected." 

Iowa State, UNI and the University of Iowa canceled in-person classes in March after Iowa Board of Regents President Mike Richards declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic. The schools remained closed for the rest of the spring semester. 

Although Iowa State and UNI both say they expect students to wear face masks when social distancing is not possible, neither school said it would require face coverings to enter classrooms. 

"We’re going to ask students to hold each other accountable," said John Lawrence, chairman of the Iowa State committee that developed recommendations for the return to classes. 

The school is launching a Cyclone Cares marketing campaign to encourage students to wear masks and observe social distancing and personal hygiene recommendations. 

"Our expectation is anytime they cannot socially distance (wearing a mask) is recommended," Lawrence said. "Certainly, if they are in a crowd, they should have them on. If they’re in a classroom, they should have them on."

Both Iowa State and UNI will start classes a week early, on Aug. 17, and wrap up the fall semester Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, rather than stretching into mid-December as they would in a normal year. Both schools will hold classes on Labor Day.

“These changes will give us the opportunity to further protect our campus community while still holding a full semester of on-campus teaching and learning activities,” UNI President Mark Nook wrote in a campus email.

The University of Iowa will resume classes Aug. 24. It has not yet announced changes for the fall, but said in a statement that it "will implement recommended best practices for limiting exposure to COVID-19 in a campus setting."

Iowa State's fall planning committee has been meeting daily since May to develop a plan to safely reopen. 

“We’ve made several important decisions, but our work is ongoing,” Lawrence said in a news release. “What we know about COVID-19 will change between now and when classes start in August. We are working through a variety of issues to make sure the university is prepared.”

Both universities will reduce the number of students in classrooms.

At Iowa State, that will include holding the school's largest lecture classes online, and moving smaller classes into larger lecture halls where students can be spread out to avoid close contact. 

Students at both colleges will have more options in how they take classes, whether in person, online or a hybrid approach. 

"Our intent is for courses with labs, studio sections, capstone projects and other interactive experiences to largely be delivered through in-person instruction," Wintersteen said. 

Residence halls and dining centers at both schools will reopen in the fall, although Lawrence said gathering spaces would be restricted and dining hall capacity would be reduced. 

Iowa State will set aside space in the Oak-Elm residence hall and another facility to isolate students who test positive for COVID-19. The university had planned to close Oak-Elm hall this year because of an increasing number of vacancies in on-campus housing. 

Iowa State's student health center is is working with the Story County Health Department to develop a COVID-19 testing program for students, faculty and staff that will include contact tracing to identify those who may have been exposed to the virus in classrooms, residence halls and other campus facilities. 

"The expectation is that all faculty and staff and the students living in residence housing will be tested when they come to campus," Lawrence said. 

Once a student tests positive, Iowa State's team of contact tracers will work with the student to "track down people who might have been exposed very quickly and get them tested as well," he said. 

Charles Flesher covers K-12 education for the Register. He can be reached by email at cflesher@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8481. Follow him on Twitter @CharlesFlesher.