In correspondence with COVID-19 precautions, Long Beach City College’s Board of Trustees held their first remote meeting Wednesday, March 25, and provided a great deal of new and essential information to students, faculty and employees about the remote-online transitional time period.
COVID-19 updates were reported from various members of administration throughout the remote meeting.
Part of the COVID-19 response team, Vice President of Academic Affairs Kathy Scott gave updates on transition to remote instruction, presented a list of classes that have been moved to online and reported on which classes are currently facing difficulties.
The temporary remote instruction list of classes can be viewed on the LBCC website, at Class Delivery Method – Spring 2020 Ver8.
According to Scott’s segment of the presentation 2,012 classes have transitioned to remote instruction that were originally face-to-face classes, 76 are currently in a suspended state and eight classes are still transitioning as of March 25.
Scott detailed California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office is considering the extension of spring semester for classes that cannot be maintained remotely, but no decision has been made as of March 25.
Classes like anatomy, nursing, automotive, culinary, and affiliated labs have faced difficulties and adjustments are being worked out.
“Anatomy… They couldn’t take anything home, they have hazardous materials, so [faculty] came into labs with their colleagues, performed the labs, recorded them, photographed them and that’s what they’re using for instruction,” Scott said.
Scott detailed the proceedings in automotive, culinary, nursing and other courses in her presentation.
“Auto, some of the faculty were allowed to take the electric vehicles home so they could do the videos of different operations of the car… Culinary has created cooking videos, putting together ingredient bags for students to pick up to continue their assignments,” Scott said.
In regards to nursing, Scott said,“The whole situation with nursing is very interesting right now because we’re being asked to continue that instruction and possibly, even some classes back on-campus, in a social distancing manner because the need for nurses is so great right now.”
Scott mentioned resources for faculty on the LBCC website for remote-online teaching, suggestions for creative and flexible instruction, Canvas and ConferZoom tutorials, and support services like a list of staff contact information, amongst other topics. Access the faculty resources web page at COVID-19 Info for Faculty.
Scott credited Dean of Language Arts and Communication Lee Douglas for converting all tutoring services online, as tutors are working remotely to continue aiding students with their classes.
Online tutoring can be accessed at Tutoring, where instructions are detailed on how to make an appointment with new protocol.
All library services are online as of March 25, according to Scott.
“Chat with a librarian, online research orientations and we also have our online databases… So all of the library services continue,” Scott said.
There was brief discourse about Title 5, which requires instructors to reach a certain number of instructional hours before credit can be given and this was in relation to student credits being successfully transferred at the end of the semester.
Scott said instructors are remaining mindful of Title 5 requirements in this time of remote-online instruction.
Lastly, Scott talked about the status for the summer 2020 session, as of March 25.
“We believe that it’s highly likely that we will be fully online for summer… We don’t know what’s going to happen here, with the health situation in the state. We’re going to have to wait and see,” Scott said.
Vice President of Student Services Mike Muñoz, who provided information on student services like Viking Vaults, a food giveaway service for students in need, transition of services to online, remote counseling, helping special-case students in need and a student helpline that operates as a phonetree.
COVID-19 related resources like travel advisory, prevention tips and resources for students can be accessed at www.lbcc.edu/covid-19-info-students.
The Viking Vault provided 300 bags of groceries to students on Tuesday at LAC and PCC, with the inclusion of a box of cereal, almond milk, bread, peanut butter, jelly, string cheese, tuna fish, and a handful of other nutritional items.
The Viking Vault is set to occur on Tuesdays from noon to 3 p.m., in parking lot G at LAC and parking lot 2 at PCC. Updates are posted on LBCC’s Healthy Vikings social media accounts.
“Our goal is to continue to offer this service on a weekly basis, as well as recognizing that we don’t fully know what the future has in store for us,” Muñoz said.
According to Mike Muñoz, financial aid, admissions and records, and online counseling can be accessed at Remote/Online Student Services – Long Beach City College.
The Office of Basic Needs is in the process of securing gift cards to grocery stores like Albertsons and Vons to give to students in need.
Showers and other services are provided to students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness by the Office of Basic Needs.
To fully access the Basic Needs program services, including their COVID-19 website, students can go to LBCC Basic Needs.
Newly appointed interim superintendent-president Lou Ann Bynum, who participated in her first board meeting in this setting, spoke about consequential steps to the status of coronavirus and LBCC’s transition to online and remote.
According to Bynum, no decision has been made for the spring 2020 commencement ceremony, remote-online instruction is currently considered for the summer 2020 semester with no final decision and the registration process for new students, high school and transfer, is being evaluated by the board.
Vice President Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk talked about the COVID-19 health crisis and its prospective effect on LBCC.
“One million Californians filed for unemployment in the last two weeks, so that means one million people in California got laid off. We typically have an inverse relationship when the economy is bad… More students enroll and it’s going to be very interesting to see how that relationship plays out, with the virus and pandemic,” Ntuk said.
Upon item 9.1 when Mike Muñoz discussed student services, Board President Vivian Malauulu inquired about student withdrawals and drops from classes that cannot be sustained for personal reasons and the consequences due to COVID-19.
According to Muñoz, the chancellor’s office held a webinar on Wednesday regarding the COVID-19 response and is expected to release guidance this week.
“We will be able to implement an excused withdrawal process that will not hurt students in terms of their academic standings… There still are some implications regarding federal financial aid… Nonetheless, the excused withdrawal is a much better option for our students than the traditional withdrawal,” Muñoz said.
The next remote meeting of the board is to occur on April 22, 2020 with closed session at 4:30 p.m. and open session live stream at 5:30 p.m.