From the classroom to the playing field, Marshall officials prepare to safely return students and fans back to campus.
The Memorial Student Center is the town square at Marshall University, but on an 80-degree June day, there’s not a soul on the plaza. The water tumbles from the Memorial Fountain into the reflecting pool but there are no students perched nearby. Even the hedges in front of the student center could use some attention. Since March 13 this has been a campus in hibernation.
This is 2020, the year of the coronavirus.
“This place has been a ghost town,” said Tracy Smith, the university’s director of environmental health and safety. Not long after in-person classes were cancelled, Smith, along with a task force, went right to work. They were charged with the gargantuan task of determining how to safely bring students back to campus for the fall.
“I’ve been in environmental health and safety for 27 years and this is by far the largest environmental public health challenge I’ve ever had to deal with,” Smith said. “The reason is that Marshall is basically a city within a city.”
The coronavirus pandemic has forced college administrators to engage in dialogue with experts in health, science, safety, facilities, athletics, housing and food service to try and figure out a way to get students back to school — ideally not in front of a computer, but in front of a professor again.
“If they pay for a face-to-face experience, we want to try to give them a face-to-face experience,” said Marshall Provost Dr. Jaime Taylor.
Taylor said students might not recognize their classrooms this fall, but what better place than a college campus for some creative thinking?
“Some faculty are looking at using Blackboard Collaborate (video conferencing for learning),” Taylor explained. “In one scenario half the students could come to the physical classroom while the other half could connect to the classroom remotely. Technology would allow real-time interaction between these two cohorts of students and with the instructor, and each day the cohorts could switch places. Instructors don’t have to dramatically change how they teach, and the students don’t have to dramatically modify how they learn. Our goal is to reduce the number of students in the classroom at any one time while still providing a near face-to-face experience for those who are not physically in the classroom that day.”
The campus visual also may be vastly different. The experts say the buildings will have entrance-only and exit-only doors. The number of students in common spaces will be restricted. There will be daily wellness checks for students, and they will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing. The semester will begin on time on Aug. 24, but face-to-face instruction on campus will end the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The final week of classes as well as final exam week will be conducted remotely. Ashley Lewis will take that over the alternative. She’s a senior nursing student from Minford, Ohio, and she’s learned plenty after in-person classes were cancelled in March.
“It was very difficult,” Lewis said of finishing the spring semester online. “Professors didn’t use Zoom (video conferencing); they just recorded the lecture and you had to listen to it and study it. It’s much better in the classroom, and honestly it’s not even comparable. I’m so looking forward to going back and enjoying the social interaction and seeing my friends. I’m more motivated.”
Taylor said while online and distance learning are valuable tools, he feels college life is about community.
“Human interaction is incredibly valuable in the learning experience,” Taylor said. “I always talk about it that way. Learning is like playing basketball, and the faculty member is the coach. The coach can demonstrate how to do something all day, but the coach really has to see what the students are doing, and you need that coach watching you and helping you through the learning process.”
That basketball analogy rings true all the way across campus.
In March, Marshall’s basketball teams were one thousand miles away at the Conference USA Basketball Tournament in Frisco Texas. Marshall’s men’s team ended up playing the last game of the tourney at the Ford Center — a win over UTEP on the night of Wednesday, March 11. The Herd’s women’s game with Rice the next day was called as the teams were warming up for the contest.
Unbeknownst to Marshall guard Jarrod West, the college basketball season was over. Since then he’s had plenty of time in his hometown of Clarksburg, West Virginia, to think about next year, and he’s hopeful that the games go on.
“I’m kind of getting nervous,” the All-Conference USA senior guard said. “I’m not gonna lie. I feel like we have a really good team with a lot of good players coming back. We all know we have to accept these safety conditions, stay positive and listen to the experts and the scientists and have a strong belief that they’ll take care of us.”
Over at Joan C. Edwards Stadium a Herd football player runs toward the Shewey Building with a face mask on, and this one’s not attached to a helmet. This is just part of the “new normal” for players as they come back to campus. Much of Marshall’s team returned to voluntary workouts on June 1 to a battery of COVID-19 tests. There were strict rules on where and with whom they could work out, and they were always under the watchful eye of doctors, trainers and coaches.
After testing 112 people before voluntary workouts began, three players and one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus. All were asymptomatic and the cases weren’t believed to be related.
“We immediately put them in quarantine, along with those who had direct contact with them,” Athletic Director Mike Hamrick said. “We are so glad our plan included testing as it will enable us as we move forward to know who is positive in order to keep everyone safe. This indicates our plan is working.”
Hamrick has the unenviable task of working the numbers game if schools are forced to play sports in front of a limited audience this upcoming season.
“We have several plans to get ‘X’ amount of people in the stadium based upon what we’re told to do,” Hamrick said. “There’s a scenario where, if you’re not a season ticket holder, you don’t get to watch Marshall football in the stadium this year.”
None of these administrators has a crystal ball. But what’s fairly certain is that the classrooms, residence halls and athletic contests might not appear as you remember them.
But when students do come back to the Huntington campus, Marshall University will never look better.
About the author: Keith Morehouse is the sports director at WSAZ NewsChannel 3. He is a two-time Emmy winner and the recipient of the West Virginia Sportscaster of the Year award in 1999, 2007 and 2012. He graduated from Marshall University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Photos: (From top) An aerial view of the northwestern corner of Marshall’s Huntington campus shows, from left, the John Deaver Drinko LIbrary, Old Main and Smith Hall. The Ohio River is visible in the background. Memorial Fountain is a popular meeting place though the number of students allowed in campus common areas will be restricted this year. Xavier Gaines is one of the most versatile athletes in the nation and is capable of playing quarterback, running back and receiver. Marshall students say they are ready to return to the classroom so they can interact more directly with their professors. One option being considered this fall is to have half the students in the classroom with the other half connecting to class remotely. Darius Hodge emerged as a breakout pass rusher last season and the coaching staff expects big things from him in the fall. Marshall officials want student life to return to normal as much as possible, but social distancing rules will be enforced.