Coronavirus and Higher Education - Pt. 1

Najahe Sherman has an extended conversation with Dr. Joe Burke, the interim president of Calhoun Community College.

Topics covered include when students can go back to school and how to best integrate incoming high schoolers.

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Live in huntsville, sydney martin, waay-31 news.

>> najahe sherman: thank you, sydney.

Every night at 6:30 we are taking you deeper into the impact of the coronavirus.

Tonight i am joined by joe burke , the interim of calhoun community college.

Thank you so much for your time tonight.

>> thank you.

It's good to be here.

Excited to be here.

Thank you.

>> najahe sherman: let's start with the biggest question on the minds of students, parents, teachers and school officials.

Right now where is your college in terms of returning students back to campus?

>> well, as you know, it's it's a day-to-day thing.

We are making adjustments.

Said almost on a daily basis.

We have right now of course during the spring term we're winding up with final exams strictly online now.

For the summer we're looking at the same thing, being totally online.

Some of the -- some of the programs that require skills, demonstration of skills like the health science classes, the workforce development classes, we plan to have a few students in at a time during the summer to orient them and to show some skills that they need to begin their programs. back of course observing cdc guidelines as far as social distancing and that sort of thing.

So we're looking forward to a good enrollment for the summer and excited about it.

>> najahe sherman: what factors are you taking into account and making your decisions?

>> dr. burke: well, we, of course, are very interested in what governor ivey says in her direct tis -- directives.

The -- as you know last week she kind of loosened the restrictions on what we do.

We also take directions of course from the alabama community college system which of course calhoun is a part.

And there are 24 community colleges of course in alabama and so we get those from chancellor baker about how and when to open up.

We have some leeway and we want to, as quickly as possible, get students back on campus.

And right now that's what we're looking at for fall, to get students back on campus.

>> najahe sherman: and how will the pandemic impact future learning?

For example, you talk about transitioning students back on campus in the fall.

Do you anticipate them being required to wear masks or gloves to class?

>> dr. burke: well, yes, that's what we're looking at right.

Now of course we're looking at state directives as well as cdc guidelines and those kind of things.

As far as wearing masks and social distancing and all that.

We're also looking at other protection, protective equipment like, for example, the plexiglas shields where the public, where students may come on campus and talk to folks in the add meigss office or the financial aid office and to have those plexiglas shields up for protection for students as well as for our staff.

And faculty.

Perhaps in computer labs that we have, in science labs something like that will -- we're looking at as well, is to have those shields to separate work stations to keep students protected.

>> najahe sherman: you have a lots of hands-on classes, for example, the fame program focused on manufacturing.

How are those students handling remote learning?

>> dr. burke: seems to be going well right now.

That's one of those areas where there's of course some hands-on work involved.

The spring semester, they pretty much had their -- their demonstration of skills completed by the time we went totally online, so then the rest of the semester, a lot of that has been online too.

We are currently accepting applications for the frame program that -- fame program that will begin classes in august.

As you know, that's one of those programs that -- where they work three days a week, they go to class two days a week, and they get paid for that time that they're on the job.

And so it's a -- it's a good deal and it's a -- it's an important credential for students to have.

>> najahe sherman: is there concern that that lack, however, of hands-on training in programs like fame could impact the students with their skills development or how are you anticipating or developing new ways to teach them?

>> dr. burke: well, that's -- that kind of goes back to what we're planning to do with those lab situations and those skill sets is you're right, the students must demonstrate the skills on the machines of various kinds and so they will -- what we'll do is bring in groups of students, eight to ten maybe students at a time with an instructor, again with the protective equipment, the mask and the social distancing, have a group of students in for a certain period of time, say from 9:00 to 11:00 we'll have a group in and then have an hour down time in order to disinfect the machines and wipe down everything to make sure it's dis infected and then maybe from, say, 12:00 to 2:00 we'll have another group in, have an hour's down time and so forth to make sure the equipment is safe.

One of the things that -- that we've done this semester with some of those skills is that, you know, everybody has cell phones now that can do videos and so where there's, you know, not a machine involved that they wouldn't have at home something that they can demonstrate a skill and somebody video them performing that skill and then text it or email it to their instructor to show that they have -- have those skills that are necessary.

So there's a lot of things that instructors were being innovative during this time and a lot of those things that we didn't think before could be online or well, yeah, we can do that virtually.

It can be online.

Some of the workforce areas have purchased new software to help with those kinds of things and so they're working to be sure that students -- they're going to demonstrate those skills before they're of course put out in the workplace.

>> najahe sherman: dr. burke, this is certainly an interesting time of transition.

We're going to take a quick break right now, and coming up, we're going to talk with another local college leader