LINCOLN, NE — The pandemic continues to affect daily life in Nebraska, but students and staff at the University of Nebraska’s campuses are still able to walk these sidewalks and and attend classes in person. University President Ted Carter says he’s proud of the university’s efforts to stay open and stay safe.

“We were faced with a really challenging problem; one that is not uncommon to the state, to the nation, to the world," Carter said. "We figured out how to solve it for us (while) being a good community member.”

Carter and Nebraska initiated several responses to the pandemic. They froze tuition for two years, emphasized increasing enrollment, altered the academic calendar, committed to opening campuses, and rolled out the Nebraska Promise - a program that offers free tuition for Nebraska residents with family incomes below $60,000.  Carter says he expected 1,000 students in the program, but estimates say it might be closer to 2,000.

“We can’t grow our state unless we grow our student body and grow their success," Carter said. "That was a concept that we focused on and Nebraskans responded.”

The University system posted a one percent enrollment increase despite losing hundreds of international students.

But not all recent news is positive. A faculty survey says only about one quarter of respondents said they felt safe starting in-person teaching and advising.  More than 750 students, faculty, alumni and community members have signed a petition urging Carter to move all classes online only.  He says he’s heard some of those voices and seen the petition.

“Nobody is being forced to go to class, no faculty member is being forced to teach in a classroom," Carter said. "If somebody has other conditions, we’ve made great concessions so that we can support everybody’s needs.”

Nebraska says it hasn’t denied a request to teach or attend classes digitally.  The campuses have a COVID-19 dashboards that update regularly. The Lincoln one says 714 people tied to the campus have tested positive since August 12. It notes a nearly 16 percent positivity rate, which is far higher than the state (10%) and county (8%) rates.

Carter says there’s no one statistic that would push a campus to move all online.

“We’ve been open and transparent about how we communicate about this and if we needed to shift, we would be ready to,” Carter said.

Carter says the tipping point would be if officials don’t think they can effectively quarantine people with the virus.

He does offer one critique about how some university’s have handled the pandemic. Carter says it feels like administrations are criticizing students for their behavior.

“The last thing we’re going through is student blaming," Carter said. "I’m very proud of what our campus leaders, especially at UNL, have done. Yes, we have seen some number of cases, but yet we’ve remained open.”

The University says contact tracing has not revealed a single case of the virus spreading through a classroom. Officials say that proves that the University’s safety measures in classes are working.

Looking forward, Carter says changes to the spring academic calendar could be announced in the next few weeks. He says the University is considering having students come back later and compressing spring break.