March 16, 2021 marks the one year anniversary since Long Beach City College was open to the public. The question of what the fall semester will look like is still looming.
On March 10, 2021, LBCC announced the conditioning classes for the Athletics program will resume to in-person instruction on Mon., April 12. These classes are subject to change depending on current state COVID-19 guidelines and the City of Long Beach’s Health Orders.
On Mar. 16 in an email addressed to LBCC Students by LBCC announced that they are planning to start reopening some critical areas throughout the Spring ’21 term, such as the Athletics program which will reopen after spring break.
Other areas that are being reviewed for reopening are libraries, computer labs/quiet study spaces, testing/proctoring areas, some student services and some performing arts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that 21.6% of the population in California has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 10.5% have been fully vaccinated as of today.
In regards to LBCC reopening, Uduak-Joe Ntuk, LBCC Board of Trustees President said, “I’m optimistic it’ll happen later this year but I’m concerned to open and want to make sure to come back together in safe conditions.”
According to Interim Superintendent-President Mike Munoz, the decision of how and when the campus is reopening will be collaborative. Munoz shared that LBCC has formed a reopening task force for the campus. That task force consists of different shared government leaders and content experts.
The plan for the task force is to help prepare plans for what the safest format of learning is for the Fall semester.
“The first assumption is much of what we can do is going to be dictated by the public health department and the public health orders, the second assumption I would say is anything that we do, will still be done in a phased in approach, it’s not going to be a light switch, it’s not going to be that everyone’s back on campus all on the same day and time, it will be phased in and it will be thoughtful and it will be responsive, and it’ll be safe,” Munoz said about LBCC’s approach to the re-opening of campuses.
According to Munoz we can expect more classes to be face-to-face than last semester, but also a large percentage of classes being in an online format.
“Until we get those final guidelines or that next phase guidelines that are released, it’s a little hard to determine, you know, what’s the maximum occupancy we can have in a room, but we’re prepared to quickly once we get those guidelines to make some key decisions on what that might look like,” Munoz said.
Munoz says we can expect classes that are in person to be at a lower seat capacity while following the public health orders.
Getting study areas and computer resources on campus to open safely and within the guidelines is one of the top priorities according to Munoz.
LBCC announced on Mar. 15 that free WI-FI can now be accessed at a safe distance within a vehicle in the PCC Parking Structure. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Wi-Fi signal is strong in the newly built parking structure, read the message from LBCC. More information about this can be found here.