NC community colleges go online, prepare for semester-long coronavirus response
North Carolina’s community colleges are eliminating face-to-face instruction due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
N.C. Community College System president Peter Hans has instructed schools to not hold in-person classes for the rest of this month and to expect this situation to continue for the remainder of the spring semester.
“We need to make sure that we have a unified system approach to this pandemic that respects the local nature of the colleges,” Hans said in an email Tuesday to the state’s community college presidents. “Together with my colleagues on the President’s COVID-19 Response Committee, we hope to have additional guidance for you soon, and recommendations for contingency plans for the future.
“We need to prepare for this to be the case for the rest of the semester, as this is increasingly likely to be a prolonged situation.”
Colleges are extending spring breaks and canceling classes in addition to moving to online classes.
Nearly one-third of the system’s classes were already conducted online. The state’s community college system serves 700,000 students a year through 58 colleges. That includes 60,000 high school students who take college-level classes as part of their high school education through the Career and College Promise program.
Any workforce development classes that require face-to-face instruction should be shut down, Hans said in a news release distributed by the community college system. Since workforce and lab classes require some face-to-face instruction, community college leaders are considering extending the spring semester into the summer so those courses can be completed in person once the pandemic has subsided.
“Our priority is protecting the health of our students, faculty and staff,” Hans said. “We believe we can also help our students accomplish their educational goals through online instruction. Our colleges are resilient and accustomed to pivoting to meet emergent needs in their communities; this is no different.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:16 PM.