COVID-19 cases are on the rise as Waynesburg University pushes to finish the last semester of 2020. Many students have recently been put into quarantine and are awaiting test results.

“We’ve seen a spike in cases,” said director of the department of public safety Mike Humiston. “Students are doing good at quarantining and following instructions.”

Waynesburg University has held a low profile on the COVID-19 map.

“I think the number of cases is a compliment to our policies,” Humiston said. “We’ve kept the number low for a while.”

The numbers recently spiked on Nov. 10, with three cases reported. This is the highest daily spike since early October. 

After this spike the cases jumped a total of four more tallies in the following three days. 

The students who have been in close contact with those that have tested positive are following the Keep Waynesburg Well Health and Safety Plan.

“Through the tracing process we found, and contacted, other students that need to be quarantined,” said assistant director of security operations and emergency management Lucas Kiger.

With the fall semester and the year 2020 coming to an end Waynesburg University students and most of the faculty will vacate campus before Nov. 22.

Although not everyone will be on break. The department of public safety and their campus security officers will continue their work on campus.

Many of the officers also work in coordination with the Keep Waynesburg Well Team. Even without students on campus the department will continue on with most of their duties.

“Not much changes,” said campus security officer Carin Camp. “It should be less stressful, but you never know.”

Some of the retaining responsibilities of the campus security officers are rounds on campus and monitoring and allowing people access to the university’s campus and buildings during the winter break.

The department of public safety will keep the same employed staff even with a different workload without students on campus.

“The staff won’t change,” Humiston said. “We will have Beth Shriver again, she’s a contract officer.”

Shriver works with Waynesburg University through AM GARD. She was not around during this fall semester, but she will be a familiar face in the spring.

“Beth will be good for us because we’ll always have a female officer working,” said Humiston. “It’s good for the female population at Waynesburg.”

Many questions are still circling with how COVID-19 will impact the return to campus in the spring. Waynesburg University has tentatively scheduled the return to campus for students and faculty on Jan. 18. Until then, the department of public safety will keep Waynesburg University safe.