Liberty Seeks To Safely Reintegrate Students At The Start Of The Spring 2021 Semester

After the mandatory quarantine period from Jan. 15-25, Liberty health officials continue to mitigate and implement plans to ensure students remain on campus and stay healthy during the spring semester. 

Upon arrival to campus, all on-campus students were instructed to participate in a 10-day quarantine, limiting dining options to take-out only on campus along with closing off common gathering spaces.

In an effort to safely reintegrate students on campus, Dr. Keith Anderson, executive director of student health and wellness, said, “the quarantine for students coming back was very successful and we had a high response rate.” 

Students who could not return by the 15th chose to request an exemption from the quarantine return date, allowing them time to travel back to campus. According to Anderson, they wanted to reacclimate students to the community standards Liberty holds on campus for COVID-19. 

“We can’t see from the testing just yet, but that’s where the numbers indicating the positive rate or negative rate of virus on campus,” Anderson said.

Moving forward, Anderson and his team hope to continue providing a safe and healthy campus for students to attend class and engage in normal activities all while abiding by COVID-19 rules and regulations.

“Our campus knows how to be resilient and knows how to go into quarantine and isolation, doing what is necessary to keep our campus safe and open,” he continued.  

“Just like we are noticing world-wide and across our nation, there are different variations to the virus that are showing, and the infection rate shows some of the mutations. This means we need to amplify our resilience to the virus’ mutations, being more cautious now more than ever.” 

As a courtesy, students will continue to receive emails of potential close contact if someone in their building tests positive for COVID-19. If the email does not read in bold red, Anderson said students should not be concerned that they were in direct contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. 

Testing remains available for all students at the Health and Wellness Center located on the ground floor of the Commons III residential hall. If students are experiencing symptoms, traveling or have other reasons for a COVID-19 test, the school plans to continue providing free access to PCR tests, giving them their results within one to two days. If students receive a positive test, quarantine facilities at the Annex dorms remain open. Two building on East Campus have also become available for students’ self-isolating after potential exposure to positive cases.

“We want to be champions together, so this means doing whatever we have to do to stay in-person and in the classroom,” Anderson said. “When there are restrictions, it is not necessarily because we want to do that, but because these are the state guidelines.”

Anderson said he recognizes COVID fatigue and the impact of the virus has mentally on students having to go into isolation and alter their routines, but he is hopeful for the campus to remain strong and adapt to the changing restrictions. 

Hattie Troutman is the Editor-in-Chief. Follow her on Twitter at @hattrout.