Every year, students are told not to come to class on days marked as flex days which are student free days because faculty has to complete training hours.
Flex day is a day devoted to professors to complete some of the 18 hours of faculty development training ordered by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office per academic year.
Instructors are given this time to personally develop their skills in the classroom and are offered seminars on proper sleep, wellness, and fitness.
Donna Coats, the Vice President of the classified union representing the TTC campus helped organize some of the meetings for the day.
“We try to touch on the wellness factor and also professional development,” Coats said, “everyone is able to meet their coworkers and interact with people from different campuses.”
Staff and faculty in different departments also held meetings where they discussed plans for the school year and how to tackle curriculum.
While students were not required to arrive on campus, some still opted to show up to work on group projects or study and finish assignments because they find it harder to study and finish their work at home.
“I find it hard to study at home, so I came here because I knew it was going to be quiet,” Xavier Campbell, one of the few students who decided to show up to campus, said.
Faculty in the anthropology department held a meeting discussing what anthropology professor Ama Boakyewa described as “expectations set for ourselves last year and if we accomplished those, and then going forward what we want to accomplish for next year.”
Boakyewa hopes that the desire to go to school drives more people to pursue their passion, and the meetings being held in the anthropology department during flex day discuss student enrollment and ways to make the pathway from high school to college more direct.
Although students showed up to do work on campus for peace and quiet, different faculty departments were busy holding meetings and discussing plans for curriculum and students.
The next flex day will be taking place on March 15th during the Spring 2024 semester at Long Beach City College.