by Shayla Merene | News & Opinions Editor | [email protected]
by Casey Rafter | Editor-in-chief | [email protected]
As the one-year mark approaches of the district-wide shutdown on March 13, Los Rios district Chancellor Brian King announced in a March 1 email that the fall 2021 schedule will consist of a mixture of both on-ground and online classes.
That means, King said, that the four Los Rios colleges and outreach centers will offer “more on-ground classes than this semester, but substantially fewer than usual.”
Kaitlyn Collignon, City College public information officer, clarified that discussions continue about strategies to safely launch partially face-to-face instruction on campuses that will have been largely vacant for 17 months.. The fall semester begins Aug. 21.
“We’re doing a lot more planning right now on how to return,” said Collignon. “But we are constantly evaluating how our county’s doing and how vaccine rates are coming along. All of that will be taken into consideration as we get closer to the fall semester.”
According to King’s announcement, the fall schedule will be posted online April 5, and students with first priority can begin registering for classes April 19. Collignon said that, as those schedules are built, each department at City College will work out which instructors will return to on-ground instruction and which will continue to teach classes remotely.
King’s announcement said, “Expanded on-ground offerings will include 22 ‘Impossible to Convert’ Career Education programs (programs that have been almost entirely in hibernation for the past year), as well as a small number of additional considerations where facilities and program dynamics allow for maintaining social distancing protocols while not reducing course access (for example, classes traditionally and regularly taught outside).”
Collignon said the 22 career education programs include aeronautics, aviation, dental hygiene, dental assisting, commercial music, cosmetology and MET. A complete list can be found ON City College’s reopening plan site.
“There’s been a lot of conversations with stakeholders and union representatives to really come together with this conclusion,” Collignon said. “So everyone’s really been involved in the conversation. Everyone has different thoughts on it, but overall everyone’s been comfortable with our plan.”
Collignon said that all concerned parties have given positive feedback on the plan to return to campus, but that long-term plans are still underway for spring 2022.
She said that City College is being offered to regional health care providers as a space to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. This is the case with other colleges throughout LRCCD. She adds that the use of our campus does not mean access to the vaccine will be expedited for students or employees.
“Dignity has actually used our campus for a regional vaccination clinic. All the vaccination providers must also follow county and state guidelines for vaccination access,” said Collignon. “We will continue to work with our partners in the region and with county public health officials to stay in the loop and provide relevant information about vaccination opportunities back to our campus communities as the rollout continues.”
Much of the plans’ focus involves ways of keeping students, faculty, staff and administrators safe. While all Los Rios employees are eligible now for vaccinations, King said in his announcement, “We know that it will still be some time until most of our students are eligible for vaccines, and it is likely that social distancing requirements will still be in effect in Sacramento County at the start of the 2021-22 academic year.”
Collignon emphasized, “At the end of the day we’ve got what we think is a good plan. We are going to continue to have conversations looking ahead to spring 2022 and what our return to campus will look like.”
