SAN ANGELO, Texas — During a normal year, a good number of college students would normally be on Spring Break. However, Angelo State University decided to cancel Spring Break altogether saying it is to keep students and staff safe in the midst of the global health pandemic.
"It really did not make sense for us to think about spring break where we send students literally to the four corners of the earth and then bring them back to San Angelo no knowing where they've been who they've been exposed to. So, we thought it was much safer and made a lot more sense to just keep our students on campus," Don Topliff, ASU provost and vice president for academic affairs, said.
Meanwhile, other campuses such as Howard College decided to go on with its Spring Break plans. The school doesn’t anticipate anything being different when students and staff come back to campus, but the school does want to reiterate its policies and what the expectations are after the break.
"As of right now, about noon on Monday, there aren't going to be any changes to requirements for students returning back to campus. We just ask that students, faculty and staff, everyone continue following the guidelines that we've had in place all semester as far as doing a self-check at home. You know, making sure that you don't have any new symptoms of you know, you're not running a fever,” Kaitlyn Brosh, director of student life marketing and outreach, Howard College San Angelo campus said.
Gov. Greg Abbott allowed for universities and other systems of higher education to do what they thought best to maintain safety on campus.
The Texas Tech University System and Angelo State University decided to continue to require face coverings to be worn while on campus while also maintaining six-feet of social distancing.
Topliff said the university will continue with these policies throughout the rest of the semester and for graduation. Administration will re-evaluate policies accordingly, he said.
“As you look across the state of Texas, the vast majority of universities have decided to maintain the mask and social distancing policies that they started the spring semesters with and we concur with that decision,” Topliff said.
Howard College staff said they are waiting for advice from the Texas Higher Education coordinating board and its executive committee to make a final decision on what their mask policies will be.
