ST. BONAVENTURE — On Wednesday, about 60 St. Bonaventure University students from states with high rates of COVID-19 came to campus to begin a 14-day quarantine.

About 130 out-of-state students, who also had to provide the results of COVID-19 tests, had the option of quarantining either on campus, at a local hotel or with family or friends in the state, university officials told the Times Herald. Another 1,000 students are expected on campus Aug. 21, so the quarantined students will complete their two-week isolation by Aug. 19.

Classes will begin a week earlier than originally scheduled — Aug. 24. On-campus instruction ends Nov. 22. The rest of the semester will be held online. Plans to conduct the spring semester on campus are subject to events.

The university has held several Student/Parent Virtual Town Halls to explain what is expected of students and how following protocols will keep them safe. The reopening plan was emailed to students on July 14.

On campus, students are expected to wear masks or facial coverings everywhere but their room, bathrooms and while seated and eating. Masks will be worn indoors in classes, where seating will be 6-feet apart, as well as while traveling between buildings.

At least 348 hours before arriving on campus, students must fill out a pre-arrival health screening. Students will fill out weekly online health screenings, while employees will submit daily health assessments.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19, they will stay in a Doyle Hall room set up for isolation. Roommates will also remain isolated until cleared by the Cattaraugus County Health Department.

St. Bonaventure University communications officer Thomas Missel responded to a number of questions about the reopening of the university. Here are the questions and answers.

Q. You have been busy at the university planning to safely brings students back. What has been the hardest nut to crack?

A. The hardest? The quarantine issue for students coming from states on the NYS list of surging COVID-19 cases. We were hopeful in July, based on what we had heard from CICU, the lobbyist for private colleges and universities in the state, that the governor might amend the traveler quarantine policy to adapt it for students coming back to college in the state, to allow a test-out option once they arrived. We thought that was a legitimate option, especially in our case since we are also mandating that students supply a negative result in advance of their arrival. That would have been two negative tests within two weeks.

Q. There about 130 students from high risk states required to quarantine for 14 days. How many students from high risk states came to campus on Wednesday to quarantine? Did others choose to quarantine off campus?

A. We had 60 students come to campus Wednesday to begin their quarantine. The rest, including off-campus students, are quarantining either at their off-campus residence, at hotels or at relatives in New York state.

Q. You have another 1,000 students coming to campus on Aug. 21. They have been advised on what is expected of them as well. What happens of one of them is symptomatic, or worse, asymptomatic and spreads the coronavirus on campus?

A. Our Reopening Plan is pretty comprehensive and addresses all scenarios. We aren’t going to panic if we have a case. We will follow our procedures and protocols, in concert with the county Health Department, who will send in contact tracers if a positive case surfaces. Symptomatic students will be tested.

Per the new CDC guidance: “An infected person must isolate for at least 10 days after onset of symptoms, and may be released from isolation if their symptoms have improved AND they have had no fever, without the use of medicines, for at least 24 hours.” We have dedicated rooms in Doyle Hall to isolate students who test positive.

Q. What is going to be the most difficult aspect of educating during a pandemic?

A. Two things, specific to academics: when a student has to enter quarantine, they’ll have to take their classes (assuming they are well enough) virtually for that period while the class continues to meet in person. That’s a bit of a challenge for a professor, managing two modalities to teach in. I think the other will be classroom engagement. We’ve all dealt with the occasional difficulty of talking to someone with a mask on. Our classes require masks AND 6 feet of distancing, so engagement might be a bit of an issue. We’ve offered faculty face shields, if they desire them, to assist in their ability to communicate more clearly.

Q. Did the positive test for COVID-19 of a friar last month give the university pause in its plan to bring students back to campus?

A. No. Not at all. We know cases will crop up. We handled that properly and everyone who needed to followed the quarantine and isolation protocols.

Q. Are you confident that the measures the university has taken and is asking students and faculty to take will keep them safe this fall?

A. As confident as we can be at a time when it’s tough to be confident about anything. We’re grateful that we’re in a county that has relatively few cases, and that more than 80% of our students are from three states (NY, NJ and Connecticut) with some of the lowest incidence rates in the nation right now. We’ve worked tirelessly on our plan for months and have implemented safety and educational measures that we believe give us a good chance of getting to Thanksgiving, when in-person instruction ends. We finish school online after the Thanksgiving break.

Q. There have been meetings with village officials regarding off-campus housing. How will social distancing, masking and personal hygiene be enforced off campus?

A. A couple days prior to freshmen move-in on Aug. 21, staff in Student Affairs are going door to door with Allegany Police and landlords to deliver the full packets with the Community Compact, Student Code of Conduct, Village of Allegany laws and ordinances, and a PPE kit.The PPE kits include a washable SBU face covering, two disposable masks, a thermometer, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a touch-free door opening/closing device, and a “Prayer at the Time of Pandemic” Holy Card.

In terms of specific repercussions, that will depend on the particular situation. Each SBU student is accountable to both the Code of Conduct and the Community Compact (which indicates that it is an addendum to, and sometimes overrules, the Code of Conduct). Those standards are public and apply to all students.

In terms of noise ordinances, government orders on gatherings/sizes, code enforcement (population in buildings, etc), those are the purview of the civic authorities with whom we cooperate and partner. Laws and ordinances are public, and a concise guide to them is being provided to each off-campus student in the village.