MWSU prepares for early finals week

Because of covid-19, class schedules at univerisites throughout the country were altered -- including here at home.

At missouri western, it's the final week of the semester -- administrators wanting the year to wrap up before thanksgiving to avoid extra travel and preventing another coronavirus surge.

Kq2's danielle soxy now with more on how western plans to end its fall semester <<<(reporting, danielle sachse) to send the students home for the rest of the semester, or to have them return to campus...but for missouri western, the choice has been made...finals week will be happening in 3 days...sot: erykah white, mwsu student "so busy.

They start on friday.

I have two on friday and then three on monday.

So, i'm just going going going."

The decision was made back in august, to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus and reduce travel over the break.

Sot: dr. elizabeth kennedy, interim president at mwsu "and that was definitely one thing we didn't even want to attempt, because we have some students who are getting broadband access or for some computer access is difficult and we were just really trying to set up a finals where it'd be easy for students and easy for faculty and people could have a nice break."but the next question is, what will the start of the spring semester look like for the griffons?sot: erykah white, mwsu student "we have a whole new protocol.

We have to collect their keys because when everyone comes back we're going to have to screen them to make sure like no once is coming in with covid or anything."sot: dr. elizabeth kennedy, interim president at mwsu "we have a covid response team, which is kind of a cross-campus committee that meets to talk about things, so we're already working out our protocols, in terms of how they screen students when they come back."

Despite rising cases across the country, missouri western has been able to keep numbers very low... with only 27 acrive cases among the student body, and only 4 active cases on campus sot: erykah white, mwsu student "they've actually surprised me.

When i first got here, i was really scared that there was going to be hundreds of cases.

We would get shut down by the second week.

But, they've kept the cases low.

People have been reporting if they've felt anything or have been positive, so they've been able to track who they've talked to, get them separated from the rest of them, so they've done really well."sot: dr. elizabeth kennedy, interim president at mwsu "i'm very proud of the campus.

Everyone has done just an excellent excellent job, and i'm confident we can get the sprin semester underway in a very positive and successfull way too."reporting in st.

Joseph, danielle sachse, kq2 news>>> missouri western is expected to start classes again on january 19th for the spring semester, and continue with the current protocals on campus, inlcuding some face-to-face classes, and some online.