By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Given the improving situation with COVID-19, Bowling Green State University is considering holding in-person commencement this spring.
Speaking to the Faculty Senate Tuesday, Chief Health Officer Ben Batey said that given Gov. Mike DeWine’s opening of sports and other public events, it only makes sense for the university to consider holding an in-person graduation. Commencement is scheduled for April 30 and May 1.
If the university can hold a sports event, he said, it should be able to stage graduation using the same standards.
The details are not set, but Batey indicated that the ceremonies would be outside and adhere to the 25-percent capacity of the venue.
Holding classes with facial coverings and maintaining six-foot separation has not spread the virus, and an outdoor setting would be even safer. “We’re not talking about anything indoors.”
Jill Zeilstra-Ryalls asked if this was in keeping with Monday from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s cautioning against easing restrictions too early given the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus.
Batey agreed the new variants bear watching. Ohio is maintaining vigilance, so the modest opening could be maintain.
Also “we know these vaccines are highly effective,” he said. They are 99 percent effective in preventing the most severe complications – hospitalizations and deaths.
Wood County with 18 percent of residents immunized at this point is ahead of the state as a whole.
As that continues even younger people will be eligible for the vaccine, eventually possibly by July, anyone who wants can be vaccinated.
At that point, Batey said large immunization clinics can happen.
He’s talked with Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison about using the Perry Field House when large vaccination sites will be needed.
Batey also said that fall will look very different than the current semester.
Once two-thirds of those 60 and older, who represent 93 percent of the deaths, are vaccinated, the situation will change from “a very serious virus” to one of a reduced risk level.
At last month’s meeting, President Rodney Rogers noted that incoming students were given a choice of a virtual SOAR orientation or an in person orientation. A large majority, he said, wanted in-person orientation signaling their desire for in-person classes in fall.
Some health protocols will remain in place.
In his weekly update later in the day, Batey stated the campus COVID-19 numbers had reached a plateau.
The university reported 19 cases, up from 13 last week.
Of the 19, 16 were students, eight of whom lived off campus, and three were staff members. That brings the cumulative total of cases since Jan. 11 to 287. Three students who have tested positive are in isolation in campus housing and nine are in quarantine in residential halls.
The university has conducted 1,144 symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals in the past week with 15 testing positive, a 1.5 percent positivity rate. The state positivity rate is 8 percent.
Since Jan. 1, the university has tested 10,805 individuals, with 353 testing positive, a 3.3 percent positivity rate.
