On Monday, Aug. 3, Yavapai College began classes for the fall semester.
Like other educational institutions in the state, it will be facing challenges due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For nearly all classes, instruction will be held remotely, via online learning.
“The goal of this plan is to help keep our students, faculty, staff and visitors as safe as possible by mitigating the spread of COVID-19,” Yavapai College President Dr. Lisa Rhine said. “I believe that this plan will not only help keep everyone safe but also allows our students to continue to receive high-quality educational opportunities in all of our programs.”
The only classes that are being done in-person are those that cannot be done remotely, and are “in disciplines that are needed to restart the local economy, including career technical, health, fire, and police programs,” though guidelines are in place to ensure that classes maintain some level of social distancing, including limiting gatherings to 10 people or less.
The college is also requiring wellness checks and temperature readings for students and staff who come to campus with potential exposure to the virus. Face coverings are required in all campus buildings.
The school has developed a series of phases of reopening based on the area’s progress in dealing with the virus. Yavapai College is following guidance from COVIDActNow. org — a consortium of epidemiologists, medical providers, academics and public policy veterans — which models COVID spread in different areas based on the rate of new cases and the positive test rate.
The college currently puts itself in Phase 1, or “Orange,” based on the “At-Risk” classification of Yavapai County on the COVID Act Now website. Under “Orange,” most campus buildings remain closed with regular disinfection. Phase 2, or “Yellow,” would mean residents average less than 10 new cases per 100,000 in the county. In Phase 2, buildings would reopen, with gatherings limited to 50 instead of 10, though classes would still be remote. The “Green” phase, allowing for a return to in-person learning, would require new cases per 100,000 per day to average less than one.
“YC’s Re-Entry Plan allows us to move back and forth between phases depending on the rates of COVID-19 transmission within our community,” Dr. Clint Ewell, Vice President of Finance and Administration, wrote in an email. “As the rates of transmission increase, the college plans to move more services to remote delivery, and vice versa. YC will monitor the percent of positive PCR tests and R0 in Yavapai County, and we will assess our readiness to deal with COVID-19 on campus looking at things like how many cases on campus we have or how well employees and students are following our safety protocols.”
Much of Yavapai College’s instruction had been online before the crisis, putting the institution in better position than many elementary and high schools to continue its operations remotely.
“YC was an early-adopter of online classes,” Ewell wrote. “Over the past 20 years, we have grown our online enrollments to be over 1/3 of our enrollments. Even before the pandemic, in addition to taking an online course, YC students could receive most services online: set advising appointments, get tutoring help, access library resources, etc. Many years ago, YC created the Technology and e-Learning Support (TeLS) department. TeLS provides training to instructors on standards and best practices for teaching online and training to students, and also on how to use Canvas and WebLIVE, which are the primary ways we deliver our online content.”
“We do not know what the future holds, so we must be ready to pivot forward, or backward, as necessary. We are all responsible for the health of one another and I thank you in advance for your commitment to each other,” Rhine said.
