WCU’s Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Sam Miller. Photo courtesy of WCU.
Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs, Dr. Sam Miller, provided some insights on how the student experience is going to look during the COVID-19 pandemic in a phone interview with WWCU’s Lyndan Jones. Some changes he highlighted included canceling Valley Ballyhoo, Mountain Heritage Day and the homecoming parade.
“Large gatherings of people are correlated with transmission of the virus,” said Miller. He explained that events, including concerts and keynote speakers, that students remember from years past were there were a lot of people present probably will not happen this year.
Additional changes Miller discussed include classes being held in the UC, all on-campus dining being take-out, fewer seats and the Blue Ridge Conference room being used as an option for indoor seating. He explained that in making these changes, administrators prioritized maintaining academics and the students’ health and safety.
Jones brought up Registered Student Organizations, and she asked how that part of the student experience will be impacted. Miller said, “The biggest impact this will have on RSO’s is meetings, where they can have meetings … we’re limited to no more than 10 people indoors.” He said that RSO’s would more than likely need to consider video conferencing to continue operating.
Miller had this message for students, “I think that if we have 100 percent compliance on face coverings, hand washing and six-foot physical distancing, we would see a tremendous decline in the number of new cases in a three-week to four-week period.”
Miller then said that if folks ignore the safety guidelines, he is fearful that cases will go up, and more students will leave campus sick.
Listen to the full interview below or on the WWCU web site here.
