Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | December 7, 2020 | wbjournal.com BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor A successful semester Nichols College President Susan West Engelkemeyer prioritized testing students. PHOTOS/COURTESY OF NICHOLS COLLEGE S igns around the Nichols College campus in Dudley this fall urged students to "Keep the Herd Healthy" or "Keep One Bison Apart." e signs, a take on the school's Bisons nickname for athletics, was Aer choosing to hold classes in-person for the fall, Nichols College spent $1M on testing and kept its COVID positivity rate at 0.1% a somewhat lighthearted and clever way of reminding students to keep health and safety in mind during the coronavirus pandemic. But they in no way indicate the lengths to which the Nichols administration went to keep the campus safe this fall. From August through late November, Nichols conducted more than 25,000 tests and had 28 come back positive – a rate of 0.1%. As the semester went on and other schools began moving courses online or restricting the movement of students – a list including Assumption and Clark universities, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester State University and Fitchburg State University – Nichols made it to its anksgiving break able to look back and exhale a bit that all the precautions largely worked. "at was remarkable that we were able to be a part of that," President Susan West Engelkemeyer said. Nichols benefited from a few factors working in its favor: a small, rural campus, a student body largely hailing from Massachusetts and nearby states with low virus numbers heading into the semester, and a dedicated testing program college leaders said was the backbone of keeping the school healthy. Months of preparation Nichols, along with counterparts virtually everywhere, was forced to abandon plans for finishing the spring semester on campus and capping it with a commencement ceremony once the pandemic hit. It wasn't long aer that school officials already began looking at how the fall semester may look. In May, Gov. Charlie Baker indicated colleges' fall operations were included in the state's plans for a gradual reopening aer a spring surge in coronavirus cases. It was then Nichols assembled task forces to look at nearly every aspect of operations on campus. One focused on academic engagement and classroom use, another on dorms and dining services, and one focused on personnel and another on athletics, including the campus fitness center. A list of factors to consider spanned more than 100 items. "ere isn't a single element of the built environment that wasn't affected," said Bob LaVigne, Nichols' vice president for operations. Nichols turned off hand dryers in restrooms and replaced them with paper towel dispensers not moving the air around so much. It spaced out dining hall tables and classroom desks and placed hand sanitizer stations seemingly everywhere. Each classroom was stocked with disinfectant spray and paper towels for students to wipe down their desks before class. Heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems were tweaked so instead of circulating air only when needed – something normal times would be ideal for conserving electricity – to bring in as much fresh air as possible. Nichols College conducted more than 25,000 coronavirus tests during the fall semester, starting as soon as students arrived on campus in August.

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