Tech Cautiously Optimistic About COVID Upon Return To Campus

Tennessee Tech is asking students to be cautious and cognizant of potential dangers with COVID for next semester.

Provost Lori Bruce said that the university feels good about returning to campus for the spring semester.

“Our numbers have been exceptionally low for the last couple of months,” Bruce said. “So I don’t want people to become complacent, I still want people to be cautious. And you know I think we’ve learned a lot about being courteous of other people any time we have an illness.”

Bruce said that she recommends any students or parents who are feeling wary to check the university’s COVID dashboard. She said that as of now, Tech plans to return fully in person.

Bruce said that they’ve had messaging at the university level encouraging safety and caution when it comes to COVID.

“We’ve actually had some incentive programs for vaccinations,” Bruce said.”Of course, that’s always a personal choice for each individual but we’ve given away prizes, and scholarships, and had drawings and raffles for students. and students have gotten excited with a fun way to approach it to get people excited about getting their vaccination and if they need a booster to go get a booster. We’ve had a lot of messaging from the university about the importance of our personal responsibility not only to ourselves but to our neighbor. And the students have really rallied around that and it’s been a really positive experience.”