Back to school in the midst of a pandemic. Michigan colleges are working in overdrive to get their campuses ready for the fall.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way students live and learn. This past winter and spring, colleges closed their campuses and moved online, but now, many universities are announcing students will be allowed to return to campus in the fall.
Schools are still devising their plans. What we do know is that campus life will include remote learning, maximum social distancing, minimal human contact and a few more empty chairs.
Eastern Michigan University is making a mad dash effort to prepare for campus life amid the pandemic.
The president said they are measuring classrooms to see how many students can be in there and still be six feet in each direction. Each direction means north, south, east, west of any given chair in a lecture hall.
Green tags show where a student will be allowed to sit. Arrows will designate a flow of foot traffic.
Universities across Michigan say they'll be leaning on a variety of online resources, including Zoom for class lectures, the Canvass learning platform for online assignments and Google Hangouts for group meetings and team projects.
The university is perfecting its pandemic routine, a new normal that will include providing students with masks, arming classrooms with hand sanitizer while disinfecting shared surfaces around the clock.
Every Michigan college & university is working on a plan for what the fall will look like. Check out your specific university's website for more information.
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
Read our daily Coronavirus Live Blog for the latest updates and news on coronavirus.
Click here for a page with resources including a COVID-19 overview from the CDC, details on cases in Michigan, a timeline of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's orders since the outbreak, coronavirus' impact on Southeast Michigan, and links to more information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the WHO.
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
Find out how you can help metro Detroit restaurants struggling during the pandemic.
See all of our Helping Each Other stories.
See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.
