Posted: January 5, 2022 / 10:35 PM CST
/ Update: January 5, 2022 / 10:35 PM CST

LUBBOCK, Texas – As the Red Raiders prepare to return to campus amid Lubbock’s biggest COVID-19 wave, Texas Tech University will maintain in-person classes while providing faculty with the option to request an apprenticeship virtual until February 4.

Texas Tech Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Ronald Hendrick says this approach strikes the best balance between protecting the physical and academic well-being of students.

“There are different feelings, different styles of teaching, different types of classes, and so we leave that to faculties, university departments and colleges to know what’s best locally,” said Dr Hendrick. “To make those adjustments, again, taking into account the health of the people but also the academic well-being, mental health and social well-being of our faculty, staff and students.”

The university will also host on-campus testing sites and vaccination clinics on Fridays starting this week. It will also continue to seek contacts to let teachers know when a member of their class is positive.

When a student tests positive, they will be responsible for self-reporting their case to the university and arranging for quarantine.

Although the university encourages students to monitor themselves for symptoms and test if they can, most students will not be required to get tested due to shortages.

“There are a lot of limitations to testing uptime. We have limits here, ”said Dr Hendrick. “The sheer difficulty of getting tests available to everyone, I think, makes this kind of practice impractical. “

Some students in classes with necessarily risky activities in class, such as the performing arts, will be asked to take a test.

The university’s message to students now is to get vaccinated, put on a mask and consider postponing social events until the number of cases calms down. Barring a dramatic increase in cases, management is hoping that all classes will be able to return to class by February 4 or even sooner.

“Certainly we can consider if things get particularly difficult to do something more drastic, but I think what we’ve seen is that the Omicron variant in particular is highly transmissible and I think it will be very hard to contain, ”Dr. Hendrick mentioned. “Anything we can do to help flatten that curve, minimize disruption, minimize sick people, especially at some point in time, that’s what we’re going to be focusing on … it’s clear this virus is something.” that we will manage for the long term.