Parson Visits NWMSU (8-3-20)

Parson Visits NWMSU (8-3-20)

Picking up on university campuses in the region as the fall semester is fast approaching.

Good evening, i'm alan van zandt everyone agrees things are going to look different with the coronavirus pandemic still hanging overhead.

But pushing ahead they are -- and at both missouri western and northwest administrators were happy to share their plans with the governor today.

Campuses across our area about to become a little more crowded in the weeks ahead with students returning to universities.and in the age of the coronavirus pandemic, that's going to create challenges.at northwest missouri state in maryville on monday, governor mike parson making a visit to talk with university leaders about how they plan to safely restart "there's a lot of smart people out there that can deal with a lot of situations.

I think the education community above all is doing exactly what they need to be doing.

They're preparing, they're trying to give the students, their parents, the confidence."the governor met with representatives from both northwest and missouri western to hear their plans on academics, housing, safety and a range of other issues.and for new missouri western interim president elizabeth kennedy, it was her first day on the job, and she has a challenging first project to carry out."one thing i've been talking with our student affairs folks is creating a campus environment is creating as much of the college experience as we can in a very safe, healthy and protective way.""within the classroom, we've already engaged in social distancing, the spacing of desks.

We've got our labs set up, we've got our classrooms set up and marked up.

We've got our faculty engaged in seating charts so we can engage in contact tracing."what university administrators nationwide are battling is the perception that covid-19 is only danger to older people.

"if i'm a sophomore, i might feel invincible, but then i'm going back into communities, loved ones and so on.

I'm part of it, we're all part of the solution together."but for the governor, opening schools -- both k-12 and higher ed -- is important to the long-range future of the state."if we let the education fall behind and we don't do our part to keep doing that we're just going to get further behind and lose in the competition world when it comes to other states.

That's why i've been very focused on the workforce development part and getting these universities back up of that."

Northwest will be holding a combined graduation ceremony this weekend, for both summer graduates and those who completed classes last spring.

Staff say it will be held outdoors and social distancing guidelines will be in effect.