Sara Stanley, editor-in-chief of The Western Carolinian, had the opportunity to sit down with Chancellor Kelli Brown to discuss several topics regarding the start of in-person classes, parking, and COVID-19 procedures.
WCU will begin its “get vaccinated or get tested regularly” program on Sept. 20 to encourage students, faculty, and staff to help keep the community safe.
“I understand that there may be some people that choose not to get vaccinated, but then you’ll have to be tested regularly. About 50% of students have indicated that they are vaccinated, but we have a whole bunch of other students that have not actually responded yet. So if you haven’t responded, I would encourage everyone to do it so that we can figure out what our vaccination rate is here at the university,” Chancellor Brown said.
She also discussed the frustration with the lack of parking and ongoing construction on campus.
“I think at the end of the day if we can all take a step back, take a deep breath and go, okay, this is temporary. At the end of it, we’re going to have a steam plant that’s going to keep this institution running. We’ve got the Apodaca science building that is just absolutely amazing. We’re going to have a parking garage with 1000 parking spaces,” Chancellor Brown said. “So I hear everybody and we’re trying our hardest and we’ll do our best to try to get rid of the construction areas as soon as we can for those improvements that’ll make Western Carolina University an amazing institution.”
Chancellor Brown continued on to express her appreciation for the WCU community for pulling together during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Western Carolina university could not have gotten through this pandemic without our students. I know our students want to be here. I know our faculty want to see the students in the classroom. Our staff wants to engage with students. So I think we can do this. I feel very confident we can do this. Let’s get through this together and we’ll have a great fall semester,” Chancellor Brown said.
More information on WCU’s COVID-19 procedures and updates can be found here.
