COLUMBUS, Ohio — During a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine announced guidelines for the 167 colleges and universities across Ohio to hold in-person classes and lectures during the fall semester.
Each campus will be required to follow “minimal operating standards” as issued by the state that are intended to help keep students and staff safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19 as they continue their education.
Frequent and widespread COVID-19 testing at every campus is stressed, DeWine said, and it is recommended that campuses create designated housing or a local living space for individuals who live in residence halls, campus housing or fraternity or sorority houses and test positive for the virus and need to be quickly relocated and isolated, DeWine said.
Since these efforts will cost colleges and universities a good amount of money, DeWine announced that he and his team are working to allocate $200 million for higher education.
DeWine said the funding will come from Federal CARES Act funding to help not only higher education schools, but K-12 schools across Ohio, to be able to follow the state guidelines and requirements while continue to provide important education to students.
“To put it simply, if you educate students in Ohio we want to provide additional support with some of the federal funding that we have available,” DeWine said.
The specific guidelines and requirements for higher education schools will be provided on the state's website, DeWine said.
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