NWA EDITORIAL: It's all academic

Arkansas' experience of late with the covid-19 pandemic is providing plenty of fuel for notions that this fall, universities and colleges across the state won't simply be able to get back to the business of education under normal conditions.

That's what plenty of people are hoping for, and who can blame them for wanting it? But the clock is ticking toward the days when faculty, staff, administrators and students are scheduled to revive campus life, whether it's at Arkansas Tech, Northwest Arkansas Community College or the various campuses of the University of Arkansas System.

As this newspaper reported Sunday, the University of Arkansas was set to continue its march toward opening, as more steps of its June 1 Return to Campus plan kick into gear. The Fayetteville campus in March shifted to essential operations only as the world acclimated to having an aggressive virus for which there is no vaccine running wild. But August -- that's just next month -- is when students are scheduled to return for the fall semester. Enrollment officials say they expect to have more than 27,000 students registered for fall classes.

In-person tours are slated to restart Aug. 4 with expectations for all participants to wear masks. That very well could be a sign of what campus life will look like if colleges follow through with their opening plans.

As of yet, UA leaders have not committed to a mask mandate, although various groups of faculty, staff and student leaders have called on the administration to " prioritize the health and safety of the entire campus community and require proper face coverings for ALL persons on campus in ALL indoor settings, including classrooms and labs." A UA spokesman said Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz supports the idea and has told the UA System so.

Arkansas' governor and public health leaders have thus far not mandated masks in general for Arkansans, largely because there's a world of difference in day-to-day experience and potential enforcement between Fayetteville and Fifty-Six, between Little Rock and Lake Village, and between Jonesboro and Jasper.

Students on college campus will represent all of those cities and towns as well as rural, unincorporated parts of the state. Once they're on a campus, though, they'll be part of a community that, without significant precautions, will become a haven for the coronavirus.

For that matter, a campus that does not require masks may very well have trouble convincing educators and staff to return to the hallways and classrooms of academia. Even with masks in force, there are indications across the country that some professors -- particularly older ones whose age or pre-existing health conditions make an infection more dangerous -- may not be willing to take such risks.

There are also concerns, however, about whether faculty and staff can be the enforcers of any mandate.

It is hard to imagine, until a vaccine is developed, that classrooms can be made safe without the wearing of masks, by everyone. It's also hard to imagine the state's colleges and universities won't become incubators for a virus that doesn't respect one's academic needs or level of education.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has taken the "you've got to live life" approach to this long-term fight against the coronavirus. We agree with that sentiment. On college campuses, extremely careful precautions will need to be as energetically pursued as a victory on the football field.