SEMO gets ready to send students home until late January, as scheduled

This story is updated.

A week from now, Southeast Missouri State University will be on Thanksgiving break, but unlike past years, the school’s 8,929 undergraduate students will not return to campus to finish the fall semester.

In fact, they won’t return to campus for two more months, thanks to COVID-19 concerns, and will finish out the current semester with education delivered remotely by faculty.

In a decision made over the summer by university administration, the last on-campus day for Fall 2020 will be Tuesday.

While the 24th is the last day of in-person classes, with Southeast going online afterward, the campus will remain open and students may return to their designated residence halls until the conclusion of the semester. Dining remains available and meal plans will continue as normal.

Students will not return in-person until the start of the spring semester Jan. 25.

“It was a challenge to make this schedule change, but we are now convinced it was the right thing to do,” Southeast president Carlos Vargas said.

Southeast COVID numbers

Southeast’s COVID-19 “dashboard” shows an active case count that is steadily falling over the last week, unlike the sharp rises seen across Cape Girardeau County as a whole.

On Tuesday, active student cases fell to 49, down from 73 on Nov. 11.

The total number of students either in quarantine or in isolation fell to 23 Tuesday, down from 31 the day before.

Quarantined students are mainly housed in single rooms at 60-year-old Dearmont Hall, which the university ceased using as a dormitory beginning with the Fall 2019 term.

“We’ve developed not a top-down but a shared approach to this pandemic that everybody has bought into,” said Vargas, Southeast’s president since 2015.

“If you don’t have buy-in, it doesn’t work,” he opined.

Vargas said he thinks students are motivated to follow the safety protocols laid out by the university’s 23-member Emergency Response Team because of enlightened self-interest.

“I have heard so many students come to me and say they don’t want to lose the experience of being on campus as they did in the spring,” he said.

Southeast went to virtual learning in mid-March during the spring semester and Vargas said few wanted a repeat this fall.

Hyflex

Vargas said approximately 90 courses since August have been offering classes, which may be taken by other modes and not simply in-person, what the university terms a so-called “hyflex” approach.

The number is expected to increase to 100 by the time students return to campus in January.

“I don’t want hyflex to be pervasive across the institution at this time,” Vargas said, “so we are doing it as a pilot project on a volunteer basis with willing faculty.”

No-shows anticipated for commencement

Southeast will stage Fall 2020 commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday but some graduates will not attend to receive their diplomas at the Show Me Center.

“The Nov. 21 ceremonies will celebrate 700 students — 580 undergraduates and 115 master’s degree candidates, plus five specialist candidates — (but) we are expecting only about 440 to attend in person,” said Kathy Harper, university communications director.

Last Saturday, just 282 graduates showed up for the Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 commencement ceremonies, at which a total of 1,624 students in all were celebrated for finishing their course of study.

Note: Reporter Jeff Long is a part-time faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University.