Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that colleges and universities in the commonwealth can begin to reopen for in-person instruction.
Colleges and universities, which are encouraged to use remote learning where practical, can start to offer in-person classes related to technical training and labs.
The schools must limit gatherings to 50 or fewer people and submit a plan for reopening to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
The SCHEV plans must address how the schools will repopulate, monitor for infectious disease, contain the spread of disease and provide considerations for closing again.
“As we look to phases two and three and beyond, and as institutions begin to shift to in-person instruction and campus activities, expect a new normal,”
SCHEV Director Peter Blake said Thursday at the press conference. “More courses will be taught in an online or hybrid manner, classes will be small, schedules will be staggered, residents’ life will be spread out, food service will be offered in non-traditional ways and large scale events such as performing arts and athletics will be a new experience.”
Mr. Northam said that as other states are seeing a spike in new coronavirus cases, Virginia’s statistics continue to trend downward.
“So we have made a lot of progress, we feel good about how these trends are going,” the governor said. “That said, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this virus is still with us and everyone needs to continue to behave cautiously. We are one week into phase two and Northern Virginia and Richmond will go into phase two tomorrow.”
Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said the state’s finances are going to be better than projected. He originally projected that the commonwealth would lose $1 billion in revenue this quarter from the public health emergency, but instead it’s closer to just $800 million.
“You just heard the governor mention about how the virus seems to be abating in the commonwealth and while that’s happening, business activity is picking up,” Mr. Layne said.
The Democratic governor requested that Virginians who have gone to the protests over the last week to get tested for the coronavirus, adding that his test last week was negative. He also told protesters to leave the removal of Confederate statues to the experts.
“I know these statutes are causing a lot of pain but pulling them down is not worth risking someone’s life,” Mr. Northam said, referring to a Portsmouth man who was severely injured by a falling statue. “Let the local governments take responsibility for taking these statues down safely, let’s do this the right way and keep all Virginians safe.”
Mr. Northam acknowledged that the statues aren’t the only “racist and divisive relics of the past,” and announced he extended the term of the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law to examine “current state laws that create or perpetuate inequities with a focus on public safety, criminal justice, health, housing and voting.”
The commission, which was established one year ago, already has found 100 instances of discriminatory language in the Acts of Assembly and the Code of Virginia.
• Sophie Kaplan can be reached at skaplan@washingtontimes.com.
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