How are NC’s community colleges managing COVID? Not all campuses report their cases.
While North Carolina’s public universities have released information about the spread of COVID-19 on their campuses since the start of the fall semester, only a few of the state’s 58 community colleges have shared similar details so far.
Those community colleges that are reporting cases have seen much less spread of illness in comparison to some of the state’s universities, which have reported thousands of cases total.
For instance, Durham Technical Community College, which serves more than 19,000 students each academic year, so far has reported three cases of COVID-19 infection among students or employees who were on campus within 14 days of their confirmed diagnosis.
Meanwhile, N.C. Central University, also in Durham, reported 29 confirmed cases of illness between July 1 and Aug. 31. It has about 8,000 students.
Wake Technical Community College launched its dashboard last weekend and when last updated, on Aug. 28, it reported 12 cases among students and four among employees, noting that only seven of those known to be infected had been on campus.
With nearly 24,000 students on nine campuses, Wake Tech is the state’s largest community college, and the school says 70% of its students are online-only this fall.
N.C. State University, by comparison, had 871 confirmed cases as of Aug. 29, 835 of them students. The university has enrollment of about 34,000.
Community colleges with dashboards
Isothermal Community College, serving Rutherford and Polk counties, Southwestern Community College in Sylva, and Cleveland Community College in Shelby also have built dashboards for reporting COVID-19 cases.
Jane Stancill, spokeswoman for the community college system, said several other schools are developing dashboards, including Forsyth Tech in Winston-Salem.
Last week, Johnston Community College in Smithfield issued a news release saying the school had identified 18 cases of illness across campus, including 16 students and two employees. Classes started at JCC on Aug. 10 with 60% of instruction online, the school said, with plans to end the semester on Dec. 3 to try to get ahead of flu season.
While all community colleges in the state have links on their websites to pages offering information about COVID-19 and steps each campus is taking to prevent the spread of illness, most don’t indicate whether the school has identified positive cases.
Each school has a protocol for when a student or employee tests positive or believes they have been exposed to COVID-19.
Stancill said the community colleges “continue their mission to provide high-quality, accessible educational opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people across the state.” According to its website, the system serves more than 735,000 students a year, making it one of the largest in the nation.
With no residence halls or big dining facilities in which people can congregate in close quarters or in large numbers, community colleges are seen as less of a breeding ground for the new coronavirus. University officials have said most of their cases trace back to large off-campus gatherings whose participants then infected roommates or neighbors in their dorms or in Greek housing.
Like their university counterparts, community college leaders had wide latitude about how to launch the fall semester in the face of an ongoing pandemic. They have taken varied approaches, but most have allowed a mix of remote and in-person instruction.
Community college presidents run their campus operations in consultation with local boards of trustees. Stancill said each college works with its county health department and follows guidelines from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the colleges have moved many more courses online, allowing face-to-face instruction in programs where it’s necessary, especially workforce education. Students come onto campus for biology labs, for instance, and cosmetology classes, welding instruction and other hands-on learning.
Where students have to come onto campus, classrooms have been rearranged to allow social distancing. Signs remind students to wear masks, wash their hands frequently and keep their distance from others. Classrooms are being sanitized regularly, according to the schools.
Schools still making adjustments
As conditions change, community college can change, too.
On Sunday, Durham Tech announced on its Facebook page that the college had suspended walk-in support services, including at the student resources center and the library, for this week. Services at both will be virtual or by appointment, the notice said.
“The decision was based on logistical issues as the College continues to make adjustments in our COVID-19 response,” the post read.
“We understand that this change of plan can be frustrating, but we believe this is the best decision at this time. We are committed to finding the right balance of safety, accessibility, and equity in services to our community. The safety of our community matters to us, and we take this responsibility seriously.”
Carteret Community College in Morehead City announced last week that because travel increases the likelihood of infection, employees who spend the night away from home must report that to their supervisors and students must tell each of their instructors and both should be prepared to stay off campus for a period of quarantine.
Recognizing the stress of moving undergraduates to all-remote instruction so soon after the semester started, UNC-Chapel Hill announced it would offer some students the option to be graded on a pass-fail basis for the fall semester.
Community colleges did not offer that option when classes moved online as the pandemic hit in the spring because it’s seen as an impediment for students who want to transfer to four-year universities.
The NC Community College System’s COVID web page has links to each campus’ COVID-19 procedures.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
