It started with a phone call.
On the first day of the fall 2020 semester, a student in a 70-person nursing class at Mississippi University for Women received a call from a roommate who had just tested positive for COVID-19.
It marked the third likely coronavirus case in the class, and despite MUW’s social distancing efforts — students wore masks and sat eight to nine feet apart in an auditorium that could seat 400 people — that met the definition of an “outbreak” of the virus. Every student in the class had to be quarantined.
“We had a little bit of a panic there on Day 1,” MUW President Nora Miller told Columbus Rotary Club members at Tuesday’s meeting at the Lion Hills Center.
Ultimately, no one else in the class ended up testing positive, and the semester went on. The W’s safeguards had held.
Still, the early scare was one of the challenges the school faced during an unconventional fall semester, and it was still on Miller’s mind as she gave updates Tuesday on The W’s virus protocols, enrollment, finances, athletics and more as the school prepares for its second majority-online semester.
“We have learned there’s a lot of stuff that we can do virtually and that we can do very well and that we’ll be able to do going forward, even without a pandemic,” she said.
Chief among those is holding virtual classes, which The W already did well prior to COVID-19. Last fall, 53 percent of the university’s credit-hours were produced via online delivery. This fall, that number increased to 80 percent, and the few in-person classes available have hybrid flex options that allow students to miss class if they can’t come to campus.
As of Dec. 18, the end of the fall semester, 73 students and 26 faculty and staff members have tested positive for the virus. The university has reserved a residence hall that can hold 24 people for those needing to isolate or quarantine; the capacity limit was only strained for one night this fall, Miller said.
“All in all, I think we’re doing pretty well with this — very proud of how our faculty have been accommodating our students through this,” she said.
Owls ‘on the hunt for a conference’
MUW suspended all athletic competition this fall, and the Owls’ sports teams will play a limited schedule this spring, Miller said.
But the school’s administration has been plenty active in its search for a conference to join.
The W is in its second school year as a provisional member of NCAA Division III after moving up from the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, and Miller said the Owls are currently “on the hunt for a conference.”
One option, the American Southwest Conference, would require a lot of travel to West Texas; another, the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, would make travel easier.
Miller said The W applied to the SLIAC, which includes schools like Webster University (Missouri) and Iowa Wesleyan, but the league deferred the decision in December to wait and see how the pandemic affects other schools. Miller mentioned that it’s possible that Division II schools drop to D-III or that some private D-III institutions do away with sports entirely.
The lack of other public D-III institutions in the area is a hindrance for The W, Miller said, and the school hopes to partner with another such university in Arkansas or Tennessee to join a conference together.
MUW relieved Athletic Director Jason Trufant of his duties on Dec. 16 after a five-month Dispatch investigation into his conduct in the position and installed softball coach Charles “Buddy” Foster as interim AD.
Changes in enrollment
According to a survey by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 21.7 percent fewer graduates went immediately from high school to college this fall compared to 2019.
MUW was no exception to the nationwide trend.
The school’s overall enrollment this fall was down 3.84 percent from fall 2019, according to data Miller shared Tuesday. The W lost 42 dual credit/dual enrollment students, 62 students from its RN to BSN program and 19 international students.
New freshman enrollment was up 8.57 percent over the past year, however. Miller pointed to MUW’s smaller environment, single occupancy only dorm rooms and smaller class sizes as possible reasons for the increase.
“There’s some good news in all of that,” she said.
What’s next for The W
Miller said MUW received roughly $1.5 million in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in the spring.
The university, though, could only justify spending about $1 million under the law’s guidelines. That money went toward recouping lost room and board revenue, purchasing laptops and other equipment for remote working, updating the WiFi system on campus and more.
The W, which also received about $350,000 from the Woodward Hines Education Foundation to help with recruitment and retention of students, has other plans as it looks toward the future, Miller said.
A new culinary arts building — a $13 million investment — is among those plans. The new facility would have four kitchens (the current building has just one) as well as an event space that would create opportunities for celebrity chefs to come in for demonstrations.
“It’s a great need,” Miller said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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