With masks and moxie, Norwich greets spring semester students New electronic scheduling system, staff efforts smooth COVID-19 testing and arrivals, officials say By the time students began arriving on Norwich University’s Northfield, Vermont, campus Friday for the Spring 2021 semester, teams of Norwich faculty and staff were ready. Electronic message boards in campus buildings were loaded with greetings, COVID-19 tests were waiting at Plumley Armory and Facilities Operations staff members stood ready to move snow and ease movement. As in the fall, university departments across campus the School of Nursing, the Center for Civic Engagement, Facilities Operations, athletic coaches, faculty and staff had followed President Mark C. Anarumo’s “Norwich Together” motto to prepare. In his electronic message board statement to students, College of National Services Dean Matthew Smith told students, “Take care of your wingman/battle buddy and let’s get after it!”
Support from university community, standout students help project thrive, co-director Tara Kulkarni says As Norwich University, and the rest of the country, wait for COVID-19 vaccinations to arrive, the interdisciplinary Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Initiative team keeps working to keep campus healthy in the interim, gathering on-campus samples and searching for genetic tracers of the novel coronavirus. To spread the word, civil and environmental engineering professor Tara Kulkarni, on Tuesday explained the initiative on Waterbury, Vermont, radio station WDEV’s “Vermont Viewpoint” program. During a half-hour chat, Kulkarni, who co-directs the initiative and directs the university’s Center for Global Resilience and Security, told host Ric Cengeri how an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, which includes civil engineering, construction management, chemistry and biochemistry and humanities majors, had since September developed a plan to test wastewater from the Northfield Wastewater Treatment Facility and campus manholes.