{"id":8018,"date":"2020-04-03T13:12:16","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T17:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=8018"},"modified":"2020-04-03T13:12:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T17:12:16","slug":"dean-willie-reed-named-to-purdue-university-safe-campus-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/dean-willie-reed-named-to-purdue-university-safe-campus-task-force.php","title":{"rendered":"Dean Willie Reed Named to Purdue University Safe Campus Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A newly established Purdue University Safe Campus Task Force\nwill be co-chaired by College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Willie Reed.  Purdue President Mitch Daniels announced the\nformation of the task force in a communication to the University community\nTuesday, March 31, as a way to begin preparing for the start of a new academic\nyear next fall in the midst of many uncertainties stemming from the COVID-19\npandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the viral epidemic still at an early stage in the U.S., uncertainty confronts us on almost every question,\u201d President Daniels said in his message. \u201cBut one thing we can say with confidence: next fall\u2019s college environment and experience will be unlike any we have witnessed.\u201d  The president went on to describe how, there not only will be another flu season, but the COVID-19 strain will be part of that season.  \u201cMost faculty, students, and staff will not have acquired a natural immunity to it, and there will not yet be a vaccine,\u201d President Daniels said.  \u201cSpecial preparations and perhaps radical changes in traditional practices will be required, for both the medical protection and the psychological comfort of all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting that each year, when public safety data are analyzed and reported, Purdue and West Lafayette rank among the very safest campuses and college communities in the country, President Daniels explained that the University intends to extend that record \u201c\u2026 by making ourselves also the best prepared and safest possible university environment from a public health standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have asked a broad-based team of the best minds and\nexperienced leaders at Purdue, led by two of our senior academic figures, to\npropose every change they can conceive in our practices, procedures, physical\nfacilities, or any of our operations that will limit the degree of illness, flu\nor otherwise, on our campus, and to manage it effectively when inevitably it\ndoes occur,\u201d President Daniels said.  \u201cThe\nway we teach, learn, house, perform research, congregate, and do the work\nnecessary to support those core activities are all open to reexamination and\nnew, safer approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean Reed will co-chair the Safe Campus Task Force with Krannert School of Management<\/a> Dean David Hummels.  The other task force members are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n