Every student and employee who comes to ECPI University’s Newport News campus goes through the same process.
They’re required to use hand sanitizer, wear a mask, go through a quick screening questionnaire with an employee and stand in front of a thermal imaging camera to see if they have a fever.
“Luckily, no one has had that problem,” said campus President John Olson.
Gov. Ralph Northam hasn’t allowed schools to reopen after closing them March 13, and the campuses of colleges and universities across the state are still dark for the most part. But ECPI, a private for-profit university based in Virginia Beach, started to allow a handful of students back on campus at a time in recent weeks.
Classes are still online, according to Olson. Some students in hands-on programs are coming in to complete labs or take proctored tests.
“These are students that are further in the program, that’ll be getting ready to graduate in the next couple of terms,” said Sherry Toman, co-campus president for operations. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t let them fall behind.”
ECPI leaders wanted to reopen campuses sooner rather than later in part because of the university’s nontraditional schedule, which gets more students through the school faster. Semesters are packed into five-week periods and classes don’t stop for summer. Many of the programs also have hands-on components that students have to complete for licensing requirements.
“We’re trying to bring student back and control our environment by keeping everything nice, sanitary, disinfected — bringing them back for those important hands-on skills,” Olson said.
The Newport News campus, in an office building in the Oyster Point area, looks different now.
All of the doors are propped open so no one touches handles. Each of the building’s two stairwells are one-way only — one for going up, one for going down — so people don’t pass each other.
An office in the administration wing has been turned into storage for cleaning products. Tape arrows on the floor and signs on the walls dictate which direction people should walk.
Dark classrooms are full of furniture removed from hallways and other rooms, and some spare computers were given to faculty to help them teach from home. The student lounge is closed, and the food has been removed from the vending machine.
“We’re letting students come on campus, do whatever lab or proficiency they’re here for, but don’t expect any snacks or anything like that,” Olson said. “If you need something, bring it.”
On Friday, nursing students wearing scrubs were coming in and out of labs, getting ready to do required check-offs for their programs. In one computer lab, students in the physical therapy assisting program were taking a proctored practice exam for their licensing exams.
Olson said that they’ve had five to six emergency medical technician students each night at the building working on classes. The parts of the building that are open to students are mostly labs, which students have to make appointments with instructors to come to.
Christopher Fritzel, director of the electronics engineering technology degree program, was in his lab Friday morning. He hasn’t had students come to the lab yet but has been getting ready, planning to sanitize all of the resistors and chips that students will use.
“I literally measured out the spaces, planning out where students would be — about six feet away from one another,” Fritzel said.
Every lab has the floor taped with places where students should stand and what direction they should walk. Students in labs that require partners are staying with the same partner the whole term instead of rotating to limit contact.
“Normally the strength of any school is the social bonding you create with students,” Olson said. “Here you’re trying to go almost in reverse.”
