The Spring 2024 semester was off to a rough start as the Liberal Arts and Pacific Coast Campuses were closed Monday due to torrential rain and wind from the powerful storm that hit the City of Long Beach and surrounding areas.
As part of the closure, Long Beach City College sent a notification to all students and faculty that instruction would continue virtually via Zoom.
The following day, LBCC opened campus as rain continued to pour on Tuesday.
Dr. Chip West, Vice President of LBCC Administrative Services, led the Facilities team that did their best to prepare both campuses for either contingency through a rigorous inspection process.
“We knew this event was coming, so we began as early as the Wednesday prior (Jan 31) going around, battening down buildings, looking at pumps and systems to ensure everything is running effectively,” Dr. West said.
Even with preparation on both campuses, student safety was the primary reason for the closure of LBCC campuses.
“Being able to commute to campus safely was a large factor … also we’ve got to assess how the region is doing. Is there additional flooding or stuff off-campus that would impact students? So we were making those assessments as we went to buildings, spaces, and parking lots on both campuses to see what those impacts were.”” said Dr. West.
All of these assessments were reported to LBCC’s Executive Administration Team, led by Superintendent-President Dr. Mike Munoz. After consultation with various officials at the LBCC Board of Trustees, Cal State Long Beach, and Long Beach Unified, along with internal stakeholders such as the LBCC Faculty and Classified Staff Unions, Dr. Munoz made the call to switch to virtual classes.
For some students, Monday’s switch to Zoom classes was a positive experience, reflecting the lessons learned from the recent COVID-19 Pandemic.
Cathalina Reyes, a continuing student in the Nutrition & Dietetics program, was expecting to start the Spring 2024 semester in person, yet received notification of the campus closure and switched to virtual classes for Monday.
“The transition was really smooth,” Reyes said, “my professor was super responsive and emailing us.”
While some students adjusted to Tuesday’s return to campus transition smoothly, others were still experiencing difficulty due to delays and lack of communication.
A.J. Smith, a second-semester Construction Technology student, shared, “It’s kinda hard to do anything productive outside, but I like that they made a quick decision to move it online instead of completely canceling classes and letting students go without their first day of semester.”
Smith also shared that the storm affected transportation in general from the availability of public transportation to public roads, a sentiment echoed by student Kenny DaVila, who returned to LBCC to finish undergraduate coursework after serving 35 years with the government.
DaVila commented that the storm made getting to campus inconvenient and unsafe, but praised officials for their efforts. “Long Beach handled it well … they notified everybody on time, appropriately exactly what was going on, and gave us constant updates.”
Despite an uncertain start, the sentiments shared by all show that the LBCC community and students remain hopeful and vigilant for another great academic term.