Georgia Southern’s 3 campuses ready to get back to face-to-face classes

STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) - Next month, 27,000 students will start the Fall semester across three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, and Hinesville.

Georgia Southern University students return to classes Aug. 11. GSU’s president says they’ll see some differences from the past year of pandemic protocols.

“A regular schedule of classes with face-to-face offerings will be closer to the mix we had in 2019,” President Dr. Kyle Marrero said.

They’ll continue to offer COVID testing and more.

“In fact, we’ll have two mass vaccination opportunities scheduled on our campuses during the first week of classes,” he said.

He says their focus will be on personal health and individual choices.

“Social distancing and wearing masks are still strongly recommended,” Dr. Marrero said.

Dining halls will reopen to offer eat-in service. But they will also have to-go options and even food trucks on campus.

He says the university comes into this Fall after a year with a record freshman enrollment, record freshman retention from the previous class, record giving to the university.

They will also introduce new degree programs in the College of Education and Parker College of Business.

“It became a real time of focusing on what’s our mission and what’s important for us to achieve. So, we’re coming out of is stronger than ever in many ways,” Dr. Marrero said.

From football games to social events, he says many things will go back to how they were before the pandemic and he hopes they can safely continue.

He says they know as they plan for the fall, they could still be subject to statewide changes from the University System of Georgia.

Copyright 2021 WTOC. All rights reserved.