Good evening All,
Thank you all for your continued patience and diligence in helping us develop plans for the continuity of instruction and student and learning services in this constantly shifting environment. And a special thank you to those who have been flexible in finding a way this week to unexpectedly and urgently transition your traditional on-ground classes online.
As President Board's email tonight indicates, the circumstances are now such that the college will be transitioning everyone to remote work as of Monday, March 23rd. In this respect, Cerro Coso Community College is following the lead of larger institutions who have been dealing with the virus in their own communities for several days now. It follows transitioning instruction online and limiting non-essential group gatherings.
What this means for you and your students:
- Starting Monday, March 23rd, all campuses will be largely closed to students and entirely closed to the public. Exceptions are students using the open labs (more on that below) and students attending labs that could not be transitioned online. On-ground students will access their classes and then leave immediately when class is over. The deans have worked extensively with the faculty and the faculty chairs in these areas to fulfill course objectives while meeting group-gathering guidelines
- Student support services of counseling, advising, admissions and records, and financial aid will be unavailable on Monday, March 23rd and Tuesday, March 24th so that everyone in those offices can be set up with the technology necessary to work remotely.
- All college student and learning support services are going online. This means counseling, advising, financial aid, admissions and records, library, and tutoring will now be done remotely. Most office phones will be set to ring through to employees, and employees will be working regular posted hours. So continue to encourage students to call the numbers or use the contact forms on the website for the services they need. In the next day or two, students will be receiving specific guidance on accessing these resources.
- The learning support services of library and tutoring are already transitioned online and ready for inquiries from you and your students.
- We regret to say that on-campus proctoring services will no longer be available.
- On Wednesday, March 25th, those services will open back up to begin serving students at a distance.
- On Monday, March 23rd, instruction that was closed to students to facilitate the transition online during the week of March 16th-20th will reopen in the remote environment.
- Open computer lab space is being established at Ridgecrest, Bishop, Mammoth, Lake
Isabella, and Tehachapi. These are intended for students who do not have internet
service or computers at home and meant purely to provide access. Work stations are
being set up at least 6 feet apart from each other, and keyboards and mice will be
disinfected after each use. These are the hours for March 23rd-27th:
- Ridgecrest: Monday through Thursday 10 am to 4 pm
- Bishop and Mammoth: Monday through Thursday 10 am to 4 pm
- Lake Isabella: Tuesday and Thursday 10 am to 3 pm
- Tehachapi: Wednesday 9 am to 3 pm
- The Child Development Centers remain open
- The Print Shop remains open and Maintenance and Operations and Safety and Security will still be on campus
- Online classes will continue as scheduled
- Incarcerated Student Education Program instructors have been communicated with and are preparing to deliver instruction in correspondence mode.
Communications are planned to go out to students tomorrow to inform them of the above and to provide resources during this time. Communications have gone out to student services personnel about the closure to students March 23rd and 24th.
Finally, to reiterate what President Board said in her email: know that these actions are grounded in keeping you and others as safe from the possibility of contracting the coronavirus, and also as time goes by conditions could change and we will need to address yet other circumstances. Some current resources available on the website are:
- The College COVID-19 Update page
- The COVID-19 Student Resources page
- The COVID-19 Faculty Resources page
You will continue to receive emails and updates. Monitor your mailbox for messages with the “COVID-19” subject line. As always and now more than ever, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Corey Marvin
Vice President of Instruction
