University of Missouri to have more staff monitoring crowds for Saturday’s home opener
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
While several COVID-19 safety precautions are in place at Faurot Field for the Mizzou Football's home opener, the university is amping up patrols to monitor crowds on and off-campus.
This comes as the university announced 20 more people have been disciplined for violating COVID-19 policies. Prior to those, Mizzou had expelled two students and suspended three more.
According to the university on Friday, and additional five students have been suspended through May and 14 students have been put on probation for two consecutive semesters. In the other case, a former student will not be able to enroll until the student conduct process plays out.
Spokesman for the University of Missouri Christian Basi said these violations are in regard to hosting events greater than 20 people.
"This is obviously a violation of a county order," Basi said. "We have already been very clear and communicated to our entire campus community that they would be held accountable for the regulation put forward by the county."
With game day on Saturday, the university has already banned tailgating but will be investigating any on or off-campus violations of the order.
Basi said they will have more staff on campus monitoring social distancing guidelines, saying people can expect to see the patrols that have been out for the first 5 weeks of the semester.
"Our campus police have been responding to various calls, they will continue to be doing that tomorrow," Basi said. "We've got a great relationship with the Columbia Police Department, they will be continuing their work tomorrow."
The university is currently reporting 94 active cases of COVID-19 or about 0.4 percent of the student body, on-campus according to it's dashboard. There have been 1,546 cases of the virus since August 19.
55 staff and faculty members have self-reported having tested positive for the virus, with 16 of those cases currently active.
A protest urging the university to adopt stricter policies is scheduled for Saturday at noon at Faurot Field.
The Show-Me Justice Coalition is asking leaders to go fully online and allow students to remain on campus to comply with CDC guidelines, removing policies around staff using sick leave among other concerns.
Basi responded to the protests saying the university is listening to several health experts, saying there is not one single solution for this issue.
"Our strategy has been to assume everyone has the virus," Basi said. "If you assume everyone around you has the virus then keep your distance, wear a mask, and the likelihood that you will spread it is very low."
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