COVID-19: Ohio State preparing for transition back to on-campus operations
University leaders caution a date has not been determined and will be based on COVID-19 data
The Ohio State University today announced the establishment of a post-pandemic operations task force to direct the return to appropriate on-campus operations once the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) has been deemed contained.
“The fight against COVID-19 remains a real and immediate threat to all of us. Ohio State is actively engaged in this fight and in moving forward into a safer future,” said President Michael V. Drake. “We established this task force to engage in rigorous planning and to accelerate our return once it is safe to do so.”
Drake has charged the post-pandemic task force as a plan-ahead team to address an eventual return to appropriate campus operations and business continuity, though a time table is still uncertain.
“While our collective efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have shown encouraging results, we are still in the midst of the pandemic,” said task force chair Gail Marsh, senior vice president and chief strategy officer. “We’ll work closely with our own safe campus advisers and with the governor and his team to make return decisions.”
A safe campus and scientific advisory subgroup will use a data-driven approach for determining when it is safe to begin transitioning back onto campus. The subgroup is led by chair Amy Fairchild, dean of the College of Public Health, and vice chair Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing and the university’s chief wellness officer, with members from the Wexner Medical Center’s Division of Infectious Diseases and other colleges, departments and offices at Ohio State.
Faculty, staff and students are represented in the planning efforts.
“All university units have begun transition planning while still responding to the crisis at hand,” Drake said. “The task force will align planning across the wide spectrum of functions and operations necessary to the university’s return to on-campus operations.”
