The Fall semester will see 30-35% of classes returning to campus with social distancing needs capping enrollment at 50%, Long Beach City College said in a college-wide email sent out Wednesday.
The email did not list any specific classes returning but in a previous interview with Interim President Mike Munoz, he said, “We are probably looking at the courses that are negatively impacted if left fully online.”
In an email sent by Kathleen Scott to faculty and staff, she said, “The deans and department heads in collaboration with the vice president of academic affairs, will determine what courses should be prioritized for some in-person instruction this fall.”
Scott said that meeting the 30-35% goal will be done by, “looking at prioritizing which classes should return to campus based on students needs.”
The below is a summarized list of criteria that will be looked at:
1. Courses that need to come back due to pedagogical reasons, for example such as science and fashion that need demonstrations conducted.
2. Lower level courses where students need additional assistance such as ESL courses.
3. Courses with low success rates, prior to COVID-19 and have faced a difficult time online.
4. Capstone courses which are final courses needed by students in various areas for their degree.
5. Other courses that students need in order to complete their degrees and appear on a significant number of student educational plans.
6. Courses where a hybrid model approach can be considered (both online and in-person). For example, labs that can be done in-person and the instruction portion online.
7. Intercollegiate athletic courses for conditioning purposes and select kinesiology courses.
8. Other courses will be prioritized by instructional areas.
Library and instructional support will be opening on a limited basis and continue in the fall.
Once the needs of students and the institution are determined based on the listed criteria above, then instruction for classified staff will be addressed.
These are the current plans for the upcoming fall semester but if any resurgence or return to the purple tier may result in adjusting plans for fall and spring.
Once COVID-19 cases continue to drop and the number of people vaccinated increases then can the campus return to function in the capacity of pre-pandemic days by Spring 2022 said Munoz in the college-wide email.