BGSU Musical Arts students will go outdoors for classes

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (WTVG) – On August 27, Bowling Green State University will welcome its students and staff to campus for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Earlier this summer, BGSU outlined its restart plan to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone on its campus. Like many other college restart plans, it provides a wide range of information on many different facets of campus life.

The plan contains new rules that students and staff are asked to follow, such as wearing a face mask inside university buildings.

It contains procedures on how to get tested and what to do if a university student or faculty member should test positive for COVID-19.

The plan also includes an explanation of its university-wide hybrid approach to online and in-person classes. The plan also details how BG plans to maintain appropriate social distancing practices throughout the semester.

But one thing is missing from the plan, an explanation of how practical, group-focused Majors can safely return this fall.

“Musical studies don’t stop just because we can’t be together,” said the dean of the Bowling Green School of Musical Art, Dr. William Mathis.

Dr. Mathis spent the past summer with the College of Musical Art formulating his own personal school-wide action plan to combat COVID-19.

“What’s most important is the safety and health of our students, so everything we do and plan is around that,” Dr Mathis said.

The School of Musical Art has planned a volume of new changes to its pre-COVID-19 way of educating its music-focused students.

The new plan includes limiting the number of students in classrooms by moving some groups of music ensembles all online, placing others online and in-person in a hybrid fashion, and dropping some ensembles all together. bigger for this semester.

“It’s different, but we can achieve that sense of community through these hybrid and online offerings that we provide,” Dr. Mathis said.

In an attempt to give students the experience and opportunity to perform with others, BGSU’s School of Music Art tries creative approaches.

For starters, larger ensembles will start the school year practicing outdoors. The University plans to set up tents around the Moore Musical Arts Building, where students will practice and perform. The arts building will also lend its courtyard for student use as well as for practice and performance.

Dr. Mathis and the College of Musical Arts know that even with creative thinking, some things cannot be sustained in the midst of a pandemic.

“So we offer, in a typical year, over 600 public events that range from student recitals to large public events that will be attended by several hundred people. We won’t be able to do that this semester,” Dr. Mathis said.

Performances are now offered online through the school and will be placed on the Bowling Green State University Facebook page and website.

BGSU senior Jhané Perdue, who is studying vocal performance, is proud of the work done by her school and her dean.

“The Dean has reached out to several people and has come to events to make sure we feel safe,” Perdue said. “He is doing his best and I congratulate him on that.”

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