NSPR’s Ken Devol spoke recently with Dr. Joe Wyse, president of Shasta College in Redding, about the administrative challenges he faces in the time of COVID-19.
Here are highlights from their conversation. You can also listen at the top of the page.
On the difficulties of managing in a rapidly changing environment with so much uncertainty
I'd say one of the biggest challenges is the constantly changing nature of the crisis. So each week, especially the first, oh, four to six weeks, the situation just kept unfolding and changing constantly. And so getting to decision points would then add clarity to work our faculty and staff had to do. So for example, once we decided to finish the spring term by converting to online instruction, like many and most colleges universities did, our faculty had decisions made, they knew what they had to do, and it was a lot of work. It was very, very difficult to do that. I think we had 95-97% ability to switch everything to an online format to finish spring. And the exceptions were things like a welding lab or heavy equipment operation or those sorts of things where you just can't do that online. So our faculty were very creative. They changed some of our lectures to online, you know, our safety lectures and certain parts of it. And then we are finishing up some of those classes over this summer, with safety measures in place. We were able to finish with an exception from the governor, some of the safety related programs like our nursing, our EMT, Fire Academy, those sorts of things. So those were able to get wrapped up. The nursing was a big challenge, because the hospitals for a period of time up here did not allow our clinicals to be finished. But once things calmed down with the pandemic, we were able to get those students graduated. Some of them a little bit late after the semester was formerly over, but it did work out.
On the transition to online courses
At Shasta College, we were about a third online at the start of the spring semester. We're tending to see waitlists for students and more demand over time in that area. I think they're trying to balance their commutes and their work schedules. When you're in half online courses, it's a little easier to plan your work and other duties, I think. So a lot of our faculty were very experienced, and it was not a transition at all.
But many of our faculty had not done online work. So there was a lot of adjustment, a lot of learning. Our faculty had to do a lot of support. We tried to provide through our classified staff and other opportunities. We actually, it was somewhat unique, we decided to move our spring break forward about two or three weeks, right after we decided to go online to give our faculty a little longer time period to adjust if needed. And so that was difficult and had its challenges. And our faculty were really heroic in doing all the work and all the learning to adjust overnight to this situation.
On challenges faced by students and how the university responded
There were lots of reports back from students, and a lot of help we try to provide. One of the big challenges we heard and tried to provide solutions for was lack of connectivity in some of their homes to the internet, or high-speed internet, at least. Difficulty having the right devices to be online. I mean, many of our students were choosing not to take online courses because obviously they preferred not to do it that way. So the students had many, many challenges to overcome.
Our foundation stepped up. We did some fundraising and had some other funds that could be reallocated and help with purchasing and giving out many devices to help students connect, or Chromebooks or those sorts of things. And as well as emergency grants up to $250 for students, so our foundation helped. The CARES Act money came in. It was difficult to get that distributed, but we did distribute out about $1.7 million to students through the federal CARES Act money. So that was a big help as well.
But still, there are areas in our northern communities where there's no cell service. So a hotspot doesn't work. There's no good internet connections or it's very expensive to be able to do that. So that's still a challenge we're working to overcome. We have ordered and we'll have installed this fall as we're remaining I'll say primarily online. We are arranging as safety allows for some of our science labs and some of those difficult courses to be able to do labs on campus with appropriate safety measures and social distancing for fall, but we've also ordered some equipment to put in our parking lots so that we can allow students to come and connect to the internet, you know, in their cars, if there's no other way for them to do that. And so that's another solution we're having for the future.
On plans and expectations for summer and fall enrollment
So for this summer, we had decided early on to move as much as possible majority online. Our enrollment for summer looks very close to last summer. And we might be down a percent or two, but that looks pretty close for us. For fall enrollment it's a little too early to tell, to make comparisons at this time. But we did open enrollment methods for fall. So that's starting.
We're trying to make fall majority online as well, in anticipation of a possible resurgence. So the decision was made because we felt the disruption that had happened by middle of the semester transition this spring had to happen, but was very challenging. So by making a decision earlier to do more online in the fall, it kind of removed that disruption potential and provide more certainty for our students and our faculty for fall. So I anticipate higher demand in fall but it's hard to know and nothing's typical right now. In a typical recessionary period, demand skyrockets for community college opportunities for retraining and for education. But this is such a different scenario that we don't really know — will there be a surge in demand? Will being mostly online be a discouragement for some of that demand? You know, all these questions are being discussed around the state and and it will take time for us to figure out where it really ends up.
On the budget outlook for the next year
We're better positioned as a college than we were before the Great Recession. We have a good reserve account and have some other funds. We've built up for our healthcare liabilities that we didn't have, you know, 12 years ago. And so we're positioned to be able to adjust without over reaction. That's kind of the way I explain it. Don't have to make quick decisions that aren't well thought through.
But that being said, the state's budgetary approach this year is just full of uncertainties that are new and different. And so you're right, the governor's approach is, well, here's the cuts you're going to take, unless the federal government comes through and provides some relief. And the legislature's approach is, we're assuming the federal government's going to come through and provide billions and billions of dollars. And so here's what you can plan on.
But then if it doesn't happen, then we're gonna, mainly for education, do these massive deferrals where you expend the money this year and in a future year, we'll pay you back for it. And so basically borrow from all the the education districts' reserve accounts like ours that I was mentioning earlier that's helping me sleep at night. So very, very different approaches. And if I had a crystal ball, I'd say I hope they end up somewhere in the middle where it's not all borrowing from the future. And a little, I call it a little more realistic approach. But the governor's proposal of an 8% general fund cut, but the expectation of still educate the same number of students and keep doing what you've been doing is a big pill to swallow as well.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the “play” button to listen to the entire interview.
