Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2021

SOUTHWE S T E RN | 1 1 officials about the possibility of using the university as an emergency mass vaccination or antibiotic center in the case of bioterrorism or an outbreak of deadly diseases like tuberculosis or anthrax. “We had plans for that sort of emergency protocol, but not something where we really didn’t have a treatment,” Spiller reveals. She spent the summer setting up the Pirate Assessment Triage and Containment Hub (PATCH) in Moody–Shearn Hall, where students would go for same-day polymerase chain reaction testing or if they had COVID-19 symptoms. The PATCH operated separately from the Health Center in Prothro, so students who might test positive for COVID-19 were in a separate location. Spiller prepared to split her time between the Health Center and the PATCH, where she would wear an N95 mask, face shield, and gloves when seeing patients. The rest of campus geared up for students to return. Facilities Management, in full force with a day shift and an evening shift, began decontaminating classrooms and common areas. In classrooms, the team spaced desks six feet apart. To accommodate new social-distancing protocols,theMcCombsBallroomsandeventheRobertson basketball courts were transformed into classrooms. Air filtration was upgraded, and plexiglass barriers were installed in high-traffic areas. Disinfectant and hand-sanitizer stations were placed in all the classrooms, and yellow arrows directed the flow of traffic. Randy Erben, manager of facilities services, equipped his teamwith full personal protective equipment: Tyvek suits, masks, gloves, and shoe covers. Facilities worked with Residence Life to prepare rooms for quarantine. Meanwhile, Tschoepe in tech support worked on equip- ping the classrooms with screens, projectors, and sound systems for remote learning. Like other staff members, Tschoepe had workshopped disasters occurring, but nothing like a pandemic. “It’s usually hurricanes, tornadoes . . . you’re talking about a short period of time,” he says. Departments that normally functioned separately began planning together. Just before the pandemic started, the Facilities Management team had been in the process of purchasing a new disinfecting system using ultra- soft water and a weak hypochlorous acid. The team worked with a member of the chemistry faculty and the university’s safety manager to vet the product, which turned out to be capable of killing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In July, disparate departments joined forces and held table-topmeetings, wheremembers playedout scenarios: What if there’s an outbreak at a fraternity house? What if someone tests positive after a sporting event? “Some of those were pretty ridiculous,” recounts Seiler, from academic success. “Everyone will giggle and laugh and say, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ But sure enough, something similar to it happened, and we had to be ready.” The university asked existing employees to double up on their duties and become care coordinators and contact tracers for the cases that would inevitably occur once students returned. Contact tracers enrolled during the summer in a virtual training offered by Johns Hopkins University and practiced talking to students over the phone and telling them they needed to quarantine. The staff spent the summer working strenuously to get the campus ready for when students returned after Labor Day. Now, their teamwork and the skills they had so diligently learned—heightened communications, working remotely, contact tracing, deep cleaning, and increased technical support—would be put to the test. A FALL TO REMEMBER Timourian, who had found it difficult to hold student activities remotely during the spring 2020 semester, was now determined to make it work. One casualty of the virus was Pirate Training, the orientation for incoming first-years, in which hundreds of students would gather in the gym, sitting on the bleachers and splitting into teams for activities.