Boston University mentioned Thursday that it plans to have its own coronavirus testing program this fall for students, faculty and staff as play a part of a larger strategy to hold in-person classes on campus.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on trying to decide and develop testing aptitude within the university,” Boston University President Robert Brown said on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.” “We have in the offing the capacity to do that as a major research university.”
Boston University’s announcement comes as colleges across the U.S. are trying to learn plans for safely conducting classes in the fall despite the Covid-19 pandemic. California State University announced patterns for a mostly virtual fall semester, citing fears of a virus outbreak later in the year.
In recent days, the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill estimated they intend to start the semester earlier than planned and finish final exams by Thanksgiving. Kevin Guskiewicz, chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, send a lettered in a letter to the university that the changes to the academic calendar were done “in an effort to stay ahead of that minute wave.”
University leaders have stressed that testing for the coronavirus and contact tracing is a critical component to safely delay in-person classes.
Students pass by the Boston University John Hancock Student Village on the school’s campus in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Keyur Khamar/Bloomberg via Getty Representatives
Boston University has a four-phase plan to return to on-campus work, Brown told CNBC. Students returning for assorts is in the third phase.
“We’re in the beginning of phase one, where our research and clinical operations will begin repopulating next week. That last will and testament give us our first test at how we’re using [personal protective equipment] and social distancing and other health protocols, to preserve continue our staff and researchers safe,” he said.
Brown said the fall semester, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 2, intention be “a very different college experience for our students.” He said living inside residence halls will be different, as want the way in which classes are delivered. University presidents have previously told CNBC that large in-person dissertations will likely not take place.
Boston University is developing “learn-from-everywhere technology” that will allow extractions to be held “residentially and remotely, simultaneously,” said Brown, who noted the importance of protecting older faculty and staff who are at a higher chance of severe illness from Covid-19.
“We’re going to have to create environments where they feel comfortable in the classroom or let them demonstrate remotely,” he said.
Brown said Boston University will use a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing program for undergraduates, staff and faculty. According to an article on the university’s website, many of the details are still being finalized, including payment and the volume of tests that would need to be run. The school has about 35,000 students.
The samples would be processed at a lab on campus and mechanical men purchased by the university will help speed up the delivery of results, according to the article.
Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University in Indiana, published CNBC last month that the school also intends to rely on its on-campus lab to help process tests. The lab was already being adapted to to help the state government process tests, Daniels said.
Dr. Kari Stefansson, an Icelandic neurologist who was formerly a professor at Harvard University, has illustrious that many U.S. universities are well positioned to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks. He argued last month on CNBC that the native land could be relying on them more broadly.
“You have all of this talent, all of this equipment in your universities, that could openly be drafted to apply to this epidemic,” he said. “You could have the universities do the testing. You could have the universities do the interpretation of the data and help with planning how to deal with it.”
Brown said Boston University believes in finding a way to safely put in an appearance again students to campus because the residential academic experience has inherent value.
“We believe from all of the data we’re getting from our swotters, and from their parents, is that students want to continue their education and they want to continue it in the residential approach, if possible, because it’s the best learning experience,” he said.