UCF in the News

The Florida Board of Governors approved UCF's and other public state universities' plans to reopen in the fall semester with heightened safety measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A new graduate course at UCF will teach speech-language pathologists the nuances of COVID-19 and how to help those in recovery from the virus. The course is the first of its kind.

An app is being developed that will help students determine if they need to be tested for COVID-19. If they do, they'll be connected with local resources.

UCF's proposed reopening plan calls for classes of 100-plus students to be taught remotely, reduced capacity for student housing and safety initiatives to help prevent the spread of new COVID-19 cases.

UCF has created a COVID-19 task force to help track the virus as students prepare to reenter campus this fall.

A UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management study found that about 32% of people intend to travel in the next 12 months, with more people opting for road trips by car than a plane ride in the next three months.

“I would guess some of these changes will take some getting used to, but I also suspect most guests will be understanding and have patience as the industry prepares to operate with new conditions,” said Carissa Baker, an assistant professor at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management. “For some, though, it will be strange for an essentially social experience to have required distancing and a lack of the smiles synonymous with Disney. ”

Sean Snaith, director of UCF's Institute for Economic Forecasting, said the recession caused by the pandemic was one of the worst in history, but also one of the shortest.

A new app from the UCF College of Sciences offers a guide on how to transform a yard into a home for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.