Kansas colleges returning to pre-COVID campus life, despite low student vaccination rates

Kansas colleges are planning to bring campus operations back to normal in August, dropping requirements for masks and social distancing even as young adults remain the least likely group above age 18 to be vaccinated.

The University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University are all anticipating a campus environment similar to pre-pandemic life, with a handful of safeguards remaining in place.

University officials said they are preparing for in-person freshman orientations, full lecture halls, and more events on campus. The decision to loosen restrictions comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance last month that vaccinated Americans don’t have to wear masks in most circumstances.

On Wednesday, KU Chancellor Douglas Girod announced that the university was moving to level 2 operations, the least restrictive status since the pandemic began last year.

The university has operated on a 1-to-5 scale, with one being normal and five a complete campus shutdown.

“There seems to be a true sense of excitement about how this fall semester is anticipated to begin,” said Thomas Lane, Dean of Students at Kansas State University. “There’s a level of enthusiasm and excitement about that actual in-person experience.”

Lane said the university’s decisions would change to reflect the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and was confident that enough students and staff would be vaccinated to allow campus to safely reopen.

Lane said as of May 2021 60% of the KSU student body was vaccinated. KU did not respond to a request for vaccination data and Wichita state said the numbers were not available.

Nationwide, the 18-24-year-old age group is the least likely to be vaccinated. As of Wednesday 34% of Kansans in that age group had been vaccinated, compared to 43% statewide.

Without required social distancing or masking, vaccinations will be the “single line of defense” for Kansas colleges against COVID-19, said Josh Michaud, director of Global Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“I think it’s almost a foregone conclusion that if you have 30, 40, 50% of people unvaccinated on campus then there is a very high likelihood of getting an outbreak,” Michaud said.

Testing and vaccines at Kansas colleges

While campus operations will return nearly to normal, K-State, KU and WSU will each continue to offer COVID-19 testing and vaccinations. None, however, have said they would require students to be vaccinated.

“At this time, we are strongly encouraging all members of our community, including students, to get vaccinated,” Erinn Barcomb Peterson, a spokeswoman for KU, said in an email.

Absent requirements, universities said they anticipate messaging campaigns around vaccines in the summer and fall.

“Marketing specifically to a targeted population is critically important,” Lane said. “So that’s finding who are student influencers who can help promote vaccination.”

“Creative marketing for our student population is going to be an important ingredient for getting our vaccination numbers to the point that we want to have.”

Camile Childers, director of student health services at Wichita State, said their campaign will likely include an incentive program at the beginning of the school year.

Though details are not set, she said in an email that the university would be offering incentives to students who showed their vaccination documentation to the university or got vaccinated at the campus health clinic.

Additionally in Wichita, Childers said, all students in campus housing will be mailed COVID-19 testing kits and asked to complete them before moving in.

While much of campus life will return to normal some pandemic changes will stay.

At KU, tents and desks with wifi access set up outdoors on campus will remain, according to the university’s planning website.

Lane said K-State will continue to offer tele-therapy appointments for students and expanded dorm move-in dates.

Changes in Kansas Board of Regents

As universities make these decisions, their governing body will change this summer. For the first time, it will be primarily composed of members chosen by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly rather than appointees of Republican predecessors Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer.

Kelly will replace three members of the board whose terms expire this month.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kelly said she believed the board would work with each individual university, rather than impose a one-size-fits-all policy.

“I think in concert with the individual universities they will come to a conclusion of what’s the safest and best way to provide an education for our kids,” Kelly said.

Kelly has not yet said who she will appoint to the board. Former Rep. Don Hineman, a Dighton Republican and Carl Ice, a former president of BNSF Railway who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, both filed financial disclosures in May listing the Board of Regents as their positions.

The disclosures don’t guarantee Kelly will name Hineman and Ice to the board, but they suggest her administration has at least considered them.

Hineman confirmed to The Star he had discussed the position with the Kelly administration but declined to comment further. Ice did not immediately respond to The Star’s request for comment.

Kelly’s office did not respond to questions regarding Ice and Hineman.

In an emailed statement, Kelly’s spokesperson Reeves Oyster said the governor would “continue to appoint qualified, forward-thinking Kansans to the Board of Regents who will safeguard our state’s world-class and affordable higher education system, and who share her vision to use our colleges and universities as an engine for economic growth.”

The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this story.