WILL SCHOOL CONTINUE AMIDST RISING COVID CASES?

 I like to believe that we are going to make it to the end of the semester although there are so many unanswered questions left concerning this whole pandemic. The first step UK made in the right direction compared to other big universities, that shut down just some weeks after resumption, was making sure each student and staff was tested before classes started. Although some of these big Universities that shut down also tested their students and staff most of them made testing optional and also did pool testing. UK faculty also did a good job preparing for classes before resumption. A lot of my professors reached out to me letting me know whether the classes were moving fully online or they were going to be in-person or a hybrid class before the beginning of August. This made easy for students to know whether they wanted to move back to campus dorms or off-campus housing or just stay home if all their classes were online. In-person classes' locations were mostly changed to bigger classroom locations and signs were put up in different seat spaces to ensure social distance was maintained in these classrooms. 

Another reason I believe the school wouldn't close down is because of all the extra efforts UK put in handling coronavirus cases. One extra effort they put in was hiring different roles in contact tracing. The roles in contact tracing are divided into contact tracers who collect and analyze data surrounding coronavirus cases and the contact tracers who call students and staff to inform them they have come in contact with people who tested positive for coronavirus. These people that are called are told to quarantine in their rooms where meals and other personal items like laundry bag are made available to them by health corps (an organization hired by the University of Kentucky to manage everything Covid). There is also a problem with that as they are not supervised to ensure they are quarantining and as an RA I have seen people that were meant to be in quarantine leaving their room. UK also set aside 3quarantine dorms for people who test positive for Covid-19. 

Lastly to answer this question I used the response most of my friends gave in why they don't think the school will shut is because of money and reputation. Having lost so much money last semester when we moved online, the school is hoping to make up for the money they lost with tuition and housing fees from this semester so if they close they will have to refund most of it to students. Also, University of Kentucky believe they will make a good reputation compared to other universities if they are able to stay open for the rest of the semester without a major outbreak