SCRANTON, Pa. — The university of Scranton has announced its plans to send students back to school following CDC guidelines.
University officials say they've thought long and hard how students and faculty can be back safely on campus and receive the education they deserve.
The University of Scranton announced last month that they planned for students to return for the fall semester a little earlier than normal on August 17. Now we know how that plan would look. Social distancing and mask wearing will continue following Governor Wolf's guidelines. Students will also have different ways for going to class.
"Some classes are traditional classes in the classroom, face to face instruction. Some are a hybrid where there will be some students in class and some students remotely and some will be fully remote," said university official Stan Zygmunt.
Those options will be based on the faculty and how comfortable they are with teaching to their class.
The university has also implemented a wellness app for students and employees.
"To check their health on a daily basis. That will help them. We're trying to ensure as best we can the safety of our students, faculty and staff."
Abril Lopez is a junior at the university and hopes for a smooth return this semester.
"My biggest hope is that we do get to come back to Scranton, especially for the incoming freshmen. I hope they get to have a little bit of the sense of the type of community that we have here," said Lopez.
Students are looking forward to coming back to school and having some normalcy, but it's not just those students that are pleased with the university's decision.
Businesses near the university, like Backyard Ale House, are usually busy during the semester. They're hoping that the return of students helps their bottom line despite the recent setbacks for the number of people in bars and restaurants.
"Anytime you can get another bite of the apple is always helpful. Unfortunately, we are limited with the number of seats and people that we can put in them, but we'll take as many people as we can get that are willing to come in," said co-owner William Nasser.
Campus buildings like the library and conference rooms will remain closed to the public. The university is transforming those areas into learning spaces to accommodate classes while maintaining social distancing.