FLORENCE, AL - The University of North Alabama plans to return to mostly in-person instruction for Fall 2021. Current forecasts and the expanding availability of coronavirus vaccine doses are behind the plans to return to a more normal on-campus experience that will allow students to enjoy experiential learning, campus life, and community engagement opportunities.

"After a thorough review of our Covid Recovery Task Force plans and as a result of the very good work from that group, we expect to have more normal campus-based operations beginning with the fall semester," said Dr. Ken Kitts. UNA President. "Our ability to return to campus is meaningful for all of us, especially our students who, like our faculty and staff, have come to expect a vibrant and active UNA campus."

The Covid Recovery Task Force was established by President Kitts in March of 2020. That group, with representation from a broad base of campus constituents, including University health services, academics, and staff, has met weekly or bi-weekly since. The task force has outlined plans and is creating mechanisms that would allow students to be at UNA and allow for a hybridized learning environment for the 2020-2021 academic year. Best practices and protocols from the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were integrated into the plan.

"UNA's faculty has adapted to the hybridized model under which we are currently operating exceptionally well," said Dr. Ross Alexander, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. "We have a strong history of online learning that has proved vital to our ongoing success during the pandemic. As we transition into the 2021-2022 academic year, we will continue to be innovative in our course delivery to students."

As part of the preparation for a return to normal in-person classroom instruction, UNA has made the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine available to all eligible employees. Vaccine clinics for the first dose will take place on campus March 15-16 and 18, with the second dose following 28 days later on April 12-13 and 15.

"Our campus community has done an excellent job of adhering to the guidance we established in the Fall of 2020, including social distancing and the wearing of face coverings," said Dr.

Kimberly Greenway, Vice President for Student Affairs and chair of the Covid Recovery Task Force. "Those steps have allowed us to be safe, to keep our positive case numbers to a minimum, and to be prepared for a return to in-person classroom instruction."

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Human Sciences, and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of the NCAA Division I's ASUN Big South Conference. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: www.una.edu and www.una.edu/unaworks/