As TCU COVID cases hit 360, school says it will continue in-person classes — for now
As the number of active coronavirus cases at TCU has jumped to more than 350 over the past week, the university has announced no plans to halt in-person classes but is trying to reassure concerned citizens of its dedication to mitigation efforts.
There were only 55 active cases at the school one week ago, on Aug. 20, according to its coronavirus dashboard updated daily. That total went to 177 by Tuesday, and there was an increase of 80 cases on Wednesday that brought the total to 257. As of Thursday, there were 357 cases among students and three among employees.
There have been 641 total cases since March, per the dashboard.
Students who spoke with the Star-Telegram this week indicated that though the school is encouraging people to wear masks and socially distance, many people on campus are flouting those guidelines and facing no punishment.
Kathy Cavins-Tull, the vice chancellor for student affairs, said in a prepared statement Thursday the school is following CDC guidelines for curbing the spread of COVID-19, including proactively testing, contact tracing and monitoring the situation with the assistance of the Tarrant County Public Health department.
There was no mention in the statement of reverting to online classes only, as many colleges across the country have done in the wake of outbreaks.
“We identify positive cases that are connected by events, organizations or frequent close contact through contact tracing,” Cavins-Tull said in the statement. “Our plan takes an aggressive stance on prevention measures by asking our community to be tested, take classes online and quarantine or isolate as necessary.”
She added TCU’s reporting on COVID-19 numbers has been “consistent and transparent” since the beginning of the pandemic and the university’s goal is “to keep our students, faculty and staff safe.”
That sentiment has been questioned by some on social media as the school continues with in-person classes and its upcoming home football games following a surge of cases.
Some larger public colleges across the country that reopened their campuses at the beginning of the school year have since moved back online, including the University of North Carolina, Michigan State and Notre Dame. It’s unclear how TCU’s case count compares to other colleges, as schools have taken different approaches to reporting numbers.
A TCU spokesperson on Wednesday took issue with a New York Times report the Star-Telegram linked to in a story that provides an overview of COVID-19 at U.S. colleges. She said some schools hadn’t reported numbers going back to March as TCU has, and therefore “timelines and data provided are not comparable.”
Information on the COVID-19 webpages of several large colleges suggests that the total case numbers at TCU — which has about 9,500 undergraduate students — in some cases outpace reports from schools triple or even quadruple its size.
The University of Houston, a school with around 38,000 undergraduate students, has reported 183 cases since March, according to its coronavirus dashboard. The University of Texas at Austin has reported 488 cases since March, per its dashboard, and it has around 41,000 undergrads.
Many other colleges across the country have only been reporting cases since late in July or early August. The University of Alabama has recorded 531 positive cases since Aug. 19, according to its dashboard. The college has around 33,000 undergrads.
Cavins-Tull, TCU’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in a statement on the college’s coronavirus website that TCU will be monitoring factors that could lead to moving back to strictly online classes, including local hospital and ventilator capacity along with directives from local, state and federal health agencies.
The school is “prepared for maximum flexibility and readiness should in-person classes have to move to online only,” she said.
“There is not one number or benchmark that would indicate a change in our campus status,” she said. “However, we have seen that any one of these factors can change rapidly.”
