LITTLE ROCK -- The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will delay some of its phased-in plans to return employees to campus for work, Chancellor Christina Drale announced Monday, just days after a university task force advised against in-person coursework this fall.
The university doesn't have enough personal protective equipment to start the second phase of opening next week, Drale said. It's been ordered, but it hasn't all arrived, she said. That equipment includes masks and classroom desk shields.
Part of the plan is to bring employees who are considered "high risk" by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back to campus in August.
A task force of about two dozen UALR faculty and academic affairs staff recommended Friday the university hold courses remotely this fall, citing the high numbers of new covid-19 cases reported daily and expected to persist. The Provost's Academic Covid-19 Task Force, whose vote was first reported by the Arkansas Times, is an advisory group planning for academic and student support operations during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Guidance so far on whether to return to campus for courses in the fall has come from the University of Arkansas System board of trustees.
Last month, trustees voted without opposition to direct campuses to plan for holding instruction on campus in the fall. Since then, schools have ordered personal protective equipment, formed advisory groups and adjusted fall calendars to limit breaks within the semester.
Any change to remote-only coursework would require the trustees' approval, system spokesman Nate Hinkel said.
That doesn't apply to an online option while keeping the campus open to in-person instruction. The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, a residential high school in Hot Springs operated by the system, announced Monday it would offer an online-only option for students while remaining open.
Drale said she's heard "from a number of employees" about UALR's opening plan.
"Some of you feel strongly that the university should not require employees to return to campus," she wrote in her message. "Some of you have also suggested that the campus should not reopen at all until the pandemic has subsided. I want you to know that I hear you and I do understand your safety concerns."
But, she said, the current plan is for all UA System schools to bring students back in the fall "for at least some on-site instruction" and for normal campus life and dormitory operations.
Currently, the university is in its first phase of opening, which allows only essential employees on campus. The next three phases have been pushed back two weeks.
Phase 2A of opening will be July 20. That phase allows employees to return to campus and calls for some of the university's nonessential employees to return. Two weeks after that, Phase 2B calls for more nonessential employees to return. It also permits students to visit business offices on campus, hold activities outside while social distancing and dine at spaced tables.
Phase 3 will occur Aug. 17, a week before classes resume. The phase is normal operations, where any remaining nonessential employees return, as well as high-risk employees. Social distancing will be stressed, and when that's not possible, people must wear masks.
Amanda Nolen, UALR faculty senate president and a member of the task force advocating for remote-only instruction, said new coronavirus cases pop up each day in much higher numbers than in March, when campuses transitioned to remote learning.
Students and faculty may need to quarantine, and courses will need to accommodate for that, she said. Further, people who have children still don't know if kindergarten through 12th grade schools will have on-campus instruction this fall, she added, so they don't yet know if they will need to be educating their children at home.
Colleges across Arkansas and the nation have pledged to reopen to students this fall, although some notable systems have opted for remote only, such as the California State University System.
Colleges including UALR lost millions of dollars in expected revenue this spring when students moved out of dormitories and stopped going to dining halls and schools had to spend what they could on technology to allow remote instruction. Many schools opted to pay back or give room and board credits to students who were forced to leave early.
"The economic issues of course are a presence," Nolen said.
UALR's enrollment has declined for a decade, and most schools anticipate fewer students in the fall.
Nolen said that is "going to play a role in the calculus," but that it should play less of a role than the consideration of people's health and safety.
"I don't think it's going to save us any money in the long run to try to fill up dorms ... and then have an outbreak" and send everyone back home.