Staff Report
In order to continue offering students a quality college education in a safe and healthy environment, a diverse coalition of administrators, faculty, staff and student representatives is recommending that Allan Hancock College continue to offer the majority of its classes remotely in the fall.
The recommendations are part of a phased approach that will allow the college to incrementally reopen college sites for in-person classes as conditions allow.
The action is to be forwarded to Hancock’s Board of Trustees on June 9.
“Our mission is to provide the excellent educational opportunities Hancock is known for in a manner that is safe for our students, staff and faculty,” said Hancock Superintendent/President Kevin G. Walthers. “The plan we’ve developed will allow us to continue to offer classes in a safe and healthy environment in the fall and provides the college with the flexibility to adapt to the evolving facts on the ground related to the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Similar to its summer class offerings, the recommended plan is to offer the vast majority of the college’s credit, noncredit and fee-based classes remotely for fall. Classes that cannot be offered remotely, such as some chemistry and biology lab classes, certain career and technical education classes and the college’s Public Safety Training Complex programs, would remain in-person but follow rigorous social distancing and sanitization protocols.
Remote fall classes are part of the college’s long-range, multi-phased plan that will allow Hancock to gradually return to in-person classes based on guidance from the State of California, the Centers for Disease Control, the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Santa Barbara County Health Department.
“We take our charge to educate and enliven our students and community with the utmost solemnity,” said Hancock Academic Senate President Trevor Passage. Administration provided faculty, staff, and students with the sobering realization that the complications brought on by the pandemic would not abate by the start of fall 2020. Hancock is developing a tiered approach to provide the same quality instruction and services in the safest manner possible for our community.”
Hancock transitioned 98 percent of its classes to remote and online formats for the spring 2020 semester in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the state’s subsequent shelter-in-place order, allowing 97 percent of students to remain enrolled during the first month of the pandemic. The college recently announced that it would continue offering classes remotely in the summer.
