Safety Measures for Colleges & Universities Re-Opening This Fall
Education Faces a Unique Set of Re-Opening Challenges
Colleges and universities are still facing unique challenges that have prevented them from operating in any normal manner in the past few months and make re-opening difficult.
As the world learns to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and find a sense of “new normal,” this looks different across all industries and presents a variety of challenges. Many businesses have found alternative ways of operating, such as companies working from home, restaurants offering outdoor dining, or gyms offering small group classes.
The education sector hasn’t been quite so fortunate. As the fall is quickly approaching, students and faculty are anticipating whether or not schools will reopen. For many reasons, it is crucial that higher education institutions are able to reopen to some capacity.
It’s important because of the effect that it has not on student learning, but also for the financial security of these institutions. The decision of schools re-opening or remaining closed for on-campus learning can also directly affect the local and state economies.
Re-Opening Higher Education Institutions: Why It’s Important
Attending a college or university presents a large financial burden for students, meaning that many of them rely on their on-campus jobs to partially fund their education. If colleges choose to do remote learning, this could result in a tough decision for many students to not return to school this fall and put off their degree.
- As a domino effect, schools will face the risk of losing funding from the state and federal levels, as much of the funding is based on the number of students enrolled each year.
- This could lead to losses of billions of dollars for many states.
- In addition to the absence of students on campuses, colleges and universities also are used for conferences, concerts, camps, and other large events that bring in a large source of revenue.
The cancellation of many of these events has had a significant impact on the financial security of higher education institutions. If schools remain closed this fall, it means that these losses will continue to accrue and be highly detrimental to many universities.
How to Safely Reopen Universities
It’s evident that for many reasons, colleges and universities have a lot of pressure to be able to re-open this fall. However, the health and safety of each community needs to be the top priority in re-opening. Therefore, finding ways to safely reopen will be key. Using testing, tracing, and isolation will by the 3 crucial areas to focus on. As a company that specializes in isolation rooms and containment systems, we’re working with Temporary Wall Systems to provide a solution for universities.
Using Dividers, Physical Barriers & Partitions
Restructuring existing spaces to accommodate the new norms of social distancing and creating quarantine capabilities will be a big challenge for universities to navigate. Temporary Wall Systems has created solutions to help schools safely reopen in this manner.
Theses wall dividers can be used to repurpose large classrooms to created smaller spaces that promote social distancing. They can also be used to create isolation pods where infected and exposed students can go to quarantine. Our temporary rentable wall panels provide flexible solutions that can be used in a variety of different settings for different uses throughout the university.
Temporary Wall Systems, LLC. Can Help
As stated, the fate of colleges and universities this fall will directly affect local and state economies. The actions of these institutions to take preventative measures in protecting their communities is crucial. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits and uses of the temporary wall dividers that we provide, get in contact with Temporary Wall Systems, LLC! We’ll be happy to answer any questions and provide you with a custom quote.
