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May 2020 Newsletter
End of Spring Semester Update |
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| It is my hope that you are all safe and healthy as we move forward into the summer months. |
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| The world is embraced in an unprecedented era as we collectively work to help the St. Louis region combat a microscopic enemy, COVID-19. Never has our mission been more relevant as we observe unemployment rates comparable to the Great Depression, while concurrently working to address a huge workforce gap in many employment sectors by educating students in high-need sectors. |
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| Simultaneously, while many university students may be considering hitting the pause button at their particular institutions, we are reaching out to college students in the region to make them aware of the incredible value that St. Louis Community College offers and to provide them with information that illustrates how they can keep moving forward with their educational objectives. The need for a strong community college has never been greater, and we are the solution to many of the issues the St. Louis region now faces. |
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| STLCC’s nursing program is one of many ways that we provide a solution for education and career needs. |
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| At STLCC, nursing is an affordable, two-year program that ranks as one of the area’s best. More than 90% of our graduates become registered nurses. Starting in fall 2020, nursing education will be offered at all four campuses, which means students can stay close to home while gaining high-quality skills and knowledge. Take a look at our nursing program video to learn more from our students and faculty. |
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| Congratulations to the STLCC class of 2020! Commencement is an exciting milestone for as many reasons as there are students who are graduating. With the health restrictions in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change plans for commencement. While this was a very disappointing, sad and gut-wrenching outcome (I have not missed a commencement in 33 years!), we did not want that special date in May to go by without acknowledging our graduates’ hard work, dedication, and most importantly, their versatility in a new virtual reality! |
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| The class of 2020 was recognized with a special acknowledgment video that premiered on May 8 across the College’s social platforms. If you haven’t seen the video, a page was established on our website to watch the video and to share social media posts of positive messages from family, friends and other well-wishers. |
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| If all goes well, we are hopeful that we will be able to invite our graduates back for a commencement ceremony in December. |
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| Fall Semester Modality Planning
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| The Fall Academic and Safety Team (FAST) is examining the current fall schedule, which was designed pre-COVID-19. Clearly, there is a need for adjustment, and the team is making plans to keep fall registration moving forward while creating a realistic schedule to meet potential social distancing guidelines that will be in place for the coming semester. |
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| While the summer semester is being delivered entirely online, we are hopeful that many of our courses can be delivered in-person for fall, but we will likely be dealing with an entirely different approach in delivery for classes offered within our buildings. |
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| FAST is working diligently to re-engineer the fall semester schedule to address the pandemic and likely restrictions that will be in place for fall. At the moment, FAST is concentrating on the following: |
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Working with the Employee and Student Engagement Team (ESET) to develop safety planning for faculty, staff and students in classroom, lab, office, library and academic support center settings on campus.
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Developing fall course and program scheduling, suggest modalities and messaging to accomplish working within the determined safety parameters, provide optimal flexibility should the virus resurge, innovative ways to meet course outcomes, and to accelerate short-term certificate programs to quickly meet the needs of the unemployed and underemployed.
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Reconsidering the fall schedule: Currently, there are approximately 3,400 course sections on the fall 2020 schedule. Of those course sections, 460 are online and 230 are hybrid. That leaves about 2,700 classes as face-to-face courses. We expect that there will be fewer face-to-face classes and increases in the hybrid and online offerings.
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| FAST will work to strategically offer general education courses for students who may not return to a university in the fall, as well as strategic scheduling of short certificate programs to help re-skill individuals that may be unemployed or furloughed. |
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| You can find more information about FAST and our other COVID-19 response teams on our website. |
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This past week, Gov. Mike Parson held a teleconference to update college and university presidents and chancellors about the current budget situation and state revenue shortfalls. I am very sorry to say that by all appearances, we will be placed in a challenging situation this current and coming fiscal year given the current state budget status. The timing of this news is particularly unfortunate given how badly our employers and region need us to expand services and programs during this very difficult time for our economy.
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Gov. Parson informed us that the FY21 budget passed by the legislature is $500-700 million out of balance based on the projections of the governor’s office and the Office of Administration. Very likely, this outcome will lead to cuts and/or withholds from our state allocation, which could be substantial. No specific amounts of reductions were provided by the governor or his staff during the teleconference.
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We anticipate that there will also likely be another round of withholds for FY20, which will probably be announced around June 1.
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| At this time, we are working on various budget scenarios. We have engaged the COVID-19 Budget Response Team with this new information; its members are considering different options to address likely shortfalls. We will have specifics very soon, and I will keep everyone up to date as this matter unfolds.
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| As I complete my fifth year at the College, I want to express my gratitude to the faculty and staff for their great work in finishing out the spring semester, for your ingenuity in transitioning to an online environment, and for our police, maintenance and housekeeping crews for their work to keep our campuses safe and clean during our time of transition.
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| I thank all of you for your continued patience and focus in keeping consistent with our purpose of expanding minds and changing lives! I am also confident that we will weather these difficult times as we continue to work to serve the St. Louis region.
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| As mentioned above, the fall semester is top of mind for us - what the schedule will look like, who and how many can work safely at our campuses, and how will we interact with students following Centers for Disease Control, state, county and local guidelines. We continue to operate in a time of uncertainty, but I know we will continue to fulfill our mission as the St. Louis region calls upon us to do. As you can see from our graduating students, we serve not only as an educational institution, but as a partner for lifelong learning, training and community development.
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| I encourage each of you to keep up the great work!
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Jeff L. Pittman, Ph.D.
Chancellor
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