BU to impose hostel, campus curbs as classes reopen in October

Staff and students can't stay after class. Hostellers can't step out except to attend class or visit the library. Every person entering the class and the hostel must get their temperature checked and must wear a face mask.

These are some of the guidelines that Bangalore University (BU) has prepared under the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to reopen physical classroom teaching after months of suspension caused by the pandemic. It was only on Wednesday that the state government announced that undergraduate and postgraduate colleges would reopen in October.

For a few months, only final-year students will be allowed into the BU hostel. "This is to avoid crowding and ensure social-distancing," said Prof K R Venugopal, Vice-Chancellor. "We are preparing the SOP for the safety of our students."

Daily classes will be held only for final-year students, that too in two sessions. Students of other semesters will have their classes on alternate days, he added.

In order to ensure that hostellers do not step out unnecessarily, the university has built compound walls around all the hostels and closed some of the entry and exit points to its Jnanabharathi campus, off Mysuru Road, including the one near the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

"Students must take permission from the hostel warden to go out of the campus," Venugopal said.

For safer learning

* Every person entering a BU department or hostel must get their temperature checked and wear a face mask
* All students must carry their own water bottle
* There will be limited seats in classrooms and hostels
* Classrooms will be sanitised at the end of the day
* Foot-operated sanitisers will be installed at prime locations on the campus
* A dining hall with a seating capacity of 500 is getting ready
* Students found staying in groups within the campus and violating social-distancing will be penalised