Undergraduates may return to campus labs and research spaces if approved by a principal investigator starting Oct. 14, according to a Thursday email from Alison Preston, interim vice president for research. 

Jennifer Lyon Gardner, deputy vice president for research, said after a principal investigator says they can accommodate a student while social distancing, the student must then consent to proactive community testing and be tested at least once every two weeks. The proactive community testing program now allows students to be tested as frequently as once a week, according to the email. 

Lyon Gardner said the plan to bring undergraduates back for research has been in development since the summer. 

“We observed for the first few weeks to see the impact of all the undergraduates coming back to the city, what the impact was on UT's dashboard, what the impact was on the city of Austin dashboard in terms of COVID cases,” Lyon Gardner said. 

Lyon Gardner said the main pieces were in place to restart undergraduate research because the case numbers at UT have been stable and proactive community testing has enough tests and staff available.

Lyon Gardner said the University can require undergraduate researchers to be tested because research is not mandatory and remote options are available. UT cannot mandate testing as a prerequisite to access educational benefits because of federal and state laws, according to a Faculty Council letter from Sept. 28. 

The 50% workforce density cap for labs and the social distancing guidelines of one researcher per 200 square feet of research space will remain in place, according to the email. 

Undergraduates will be assigned to a lab’s shift and cohort schedule, where the same group of researchers works the same shift consistently to isolate any outbreaks, according to the Research Restart Plan from the Office of the Vice President for Research. 

Lyon Gardner said individual colleges and deans decided whether or not to allow undergraduate research. Principal investigators in the Cockrell School of Engineering, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and the School of Architecture are not accepting undergraduate researchers this semester, according to the email. 

Lyon Gardner said it is important for UT to provide students the opportunity to research on campus. 

“One of the things that sets (UT) apart … is that we provide these research experiences for undergraduates,” Lyon Gardner said. “It's a very important part of the undergraduate experience, and in a lot of cases, those undergraduate research experiences shape students' future career plans.”