Interim President: OU Intends to Return to 'In-Person Educational Operations' This Fall

University of Oklahoma interim president Joe Harroz said Friday the school’s “intention” is to return to campus this fall but warned of “certain challenges” in trying to get back to normal life.

In a letter addressed to the “OU Community,” Harroz writes of OU’s plans to return to conventional learning.

“After careful deliberation, our intention is to return to in-person educational operations on all three campuses by this fall,” Harroz writes, “offering traditional instruction and residential life. We are doing everything we can to make that realistic and safe. We are acutely aware of the certain challenges COVID-19 will present as we pursue this goal and are planning to address the issues proactively and creatively.

“We are prepared to adapt instructional and housing models as appropriate to protect our community and still offer the life-changing in-person OU experience. Flexibility will be a guiding principle as we navigate the coming months, and we will ensure that our students, faculty, and staff are presented with appropriate options to return to our campuses, keeping their safety top of mind.”

OU is the latest of a short list of schools that has announced plans to get back to closer to normal in the 2020 fall semester.

Harroz cautioned against a false sense of security but said OU will do what it can to protect its students and employees.

“While we cannot eliminate all risk, we will mitigate it in every reasonable way we can,” Harroz said. “We are fortunate to benefit from the expertise of our own public health and infectious diseases experts, and we are consulting daily with our subject-matter scientists and physicians. Safety precautions will be at the forefront of all campus operations, from the classrooms to the residence halls.

“Those measures include adapting class schedules, utilizing larger classrooms for the practice of greater social distancing, enabling the widespread use of masks and other PPE, increasing on-campus testing, and providing enhanced cleaning throughout all of our campuses.”

Harroz described OU’s responsibility as an institution of higher learning as vital.

“We have an obligation to our students, our state, and society to continue our important work,” he writes. “As we navigate the coming months, the real measure of our success is not that we just get through this pandemic, but that we emerge from it stronger. I am confident that our OU family is up to this task, and I join each of you in eager anticipation of being together again, safely, this fall.

“I know we all feel anxious about what the future holds. But this unimaginable hardship brings with it an opportunity for our University to affirm our fundamental values and forge a future brighter than ever.”

On April 10, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione spoke about the challenges of getting back to normal this fall, but intimated the school is up to the task.

“Obviously being part of the president’s executive team, I hear about medical researchers who are working on vaccinations for the coronavirus, I hear about infectious disease experts who are developing new treatments and new protocols,” Castiglione said. “Our public health experts are working side by side with health departments when they respond to an emergency.

“Obviously, many other experts on our campus are working with the governor to share their way to protect our citizens. This goes all the way through our entire campus, from the innovation hub, to figure out how to create new ways to design and produce new face shields and ventilators and respirators, to the scientists that are assisting in diagnostics, to even in the college of fine arts, who are using costume designers to create face masks that can be sanitized and reused. You’ve got just an amazing synergy going on throughout the entire campus system.”

Castiglione was asked on a media conference call about the possibility of playing college football in 2020.

“Well, the good news is, I don’t think individual universities are going to be making that decision,” he said. “I think whatever we decide will be done collectively through our conferences working together. And obviously those are the types of conversations I’m having not just with AD’s in our own conference, but AD’s in all conferences. We’re all talking about what that might look like.

“I don’t want to start down a path of trying to throw one model out there over the other, but first and foremost, we’re still very positive and hopeful that we’ll get good medical advice, that we can start welcoming student-athletes back on campus for practice. We can’t really talk about seasons till we figure out when or where to be able to welcome student-athletes back on campus for any kind of preparation.

“But we’re looking at all kinds of models, between a full season starting on time to slightly altering the start of the season, whether that means moving it up a couple weeks, back a couple of weeks, just generally speaking, whether that means a shortened season, whether that means moving the entire season or a portion of the season to the spring. We’re looking at any and all kind of models to be able to exact one of them depending on what the medical experts tell us.

“And again, you know, I think the other piece is to be very focused on student-athlete welfare, and their own health and safety around re-engaging back into sport, and so that will be the first order of priority and then we’ll figure it out from there.”

To get the latest OU posts as they happen, join the SI Sooners Community by clicking “Follow” at the top right corner of the page (mobile users can click the notifications bell icon), and follow SI Sooners on Twitter @All_Sooners.