Page 19 - BusinessWest April 28, 2021

and the rest through online and hybrid formats, said Bryan Gross, vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing.
Two factors played into that success, he said: a culture of small class sizes (the average student- teacher ratio is 12:1) and plenty of space that made social distancing much easier to imple- ment, and a commitment — a compact, really, among students, faculty, and staff — to make sure the campus could stay open.
“They adhered to that social distancing, we put up tons of signage, we brought in extra clean- ing staff, we had plexiglass throughout ... all those things contributed to the plan for the past year,” Gross told BusinessWest.
mally taught on campus will be, indeed, taught in person, with three-foot distancing in place and masks required, at least according to cur- rent guidance. While some hybrid options may be available, Gross said, “we feel Western New England is best with face-to-face classwork, and that’s what we’re moving forward with.”
American International College (AIC) is mov- ing in that direction as well, said Matt Scott, vice president for Student Affairs.
For the current year, he explained, residence halls are open, and students are allowed to live on campus, but most classes are remote, and athletics have continued as normal. Surveillance testing for COVID is widespread, and other safety
it used to.
Safety First
Community colleges, for the most part, were more fully remote than most schools, and are being more cautious with their return to normal- cy. For example, Greenfield Community College (GCC) will offer classes in a face-to-face or hybrid format, meeting at least once a week on campus with some possible online instruction as well.
“Safety on our campus is paramount; one of the biggest considerations in our return to cam- pus is how to utilize our space safely,” said Chet Jordan, dean of Social Sciences and Professional Studies at GCC. “Our faculty and staff have been almost entirely remote for the past year, so their input in how we can phase in a slow reopening of the campus was essential to us.”
GCC brought together a group of faculty, staff, and administrators to talk through the complexi- ties of a reopening, eventually crafting a hybrid model. “We want to make sure our faculty and staff feel safe when they return to campus,” Jor- dan added. “The situation is constantly changing, but we addressed the key questions as best we could.”
Students in GCC’s health-career programs will meet on campus in hands-on courses to best prepare them for essential jobs in the growing healthcare industry. Those in other professional programs, such as business and education, will also have on-campus options. In most programs, students will complete some of their coursework online and will participate in weekly experiential learning opportunities, including lab activities and field trips.
GCC will follow state guidelines on occupancy
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“Because some students learn better in person, and some did better virtually, and they had the ability to move between the two freely. But everyone is looking forward to a return to normalcy.”
and sanitization proto- cols are a regular part of life.
For the fall, Scott said, the current plan is to go back to “whatever the new normal will look like,” but the goal being full residence halls and in-person instruction.
“We’re still waiting to see some state guidance — there’s K-12 guidance that came out in terms of
He noted that colleges and universities don’t have the luxury of making their fall opening plans in July or August; the shift on the fly to remote learning that happened last spring is
not the preferred model for campus planning. So, while the course of the pandemic might still alter the plans before September, those plans still need to be made and set in motion.
At WNEU, that will mean all courses nor-
desk distancing in classrooms and things of that nature, but they have not come out with specific guidance for colleges yet,” he added. “But that’s the plan.”
The plan at most campuses, it turns out, is for normalcy, or, as Gross noted, whatever that term might mean come September. But optimism is high that college life will finally begin to look like
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