By Vivian Roach | Staff Writer
Baylor President Linda Livingstone hosted a Facebook live with the Baylor community to talk about the university’s coronavirus response Tuesday afternoon.
Livingstone addressed questions about future plans for Baylor students and what implications COVID-19 could have on the university in the coming months.
Many from the Baylor community participated in the video chat by submitting their questions and concerns in real time. Viewers also offered encouraging comments to President Livingstone and the Baylor faculty and staff.
Livingstone said that throughout this whole process the leadership team, board of regents and herself keep with three priorities while decision-making. They are ensuring the safety and health of the campus community, the continuity of the educational and learning enterprise, and ensuring the business continuity of the university.
Livingstone said, “that will play into the decision about summer school being online or face-to-face, and the same thing for next fall.”
Most future plans are hard to determine presently because it is unsure whether it will be safe to bring large groups back to campus for line camp, May mini-mester and summer sessions. Livingstone stays hopeful students may return to campus in the fall and for fall sports to commence normally.
Recently, student groups and student life staff have been working on virtual experiences for those students who might be missing their student experience at Baylor. Virtual Dr Pepper hour is underway, the union board is organizing a new type of sundown session and Baylor fitwell is organizing a virtual workout bash.
Livingstone said they “are working hard to begin to build back in some of the normal experiences in a different sort of way than you would’ve had on campus, into the experience that everyone has while on campus.”
Dr. Kevin P. Jackson, vice president for student life, talked about a new program student life is working on called Bear Care. Last week, in an email students responded to how they were doing, how the online learning environment is, and how the school might support them in their education. Staff will keep in contact with students throughout the semester and into the summer.
“About 3,200 students responded to that email, now we are recruiting staff to reach out to students. We will assign a certain number of students to a staff member, and train the staff members on key information and resources for students,” Jackson said. “We care about you, we want to be of greatest help to you as we can, especially during this time of change and uncertainty.”
Livingstone said that Baylor is doing everything they can for current students to finish their career at Baylor and help the incoming freshman class be successful at Baylor. She suggested another Facebook live Q&A session in a few weeks as more updates are released.
