Dear CSN Family,
As we begin Finals Week, we are also moving forward with plans for our fall 2020 semester, which will look very different than traditional semesters at CSN. While we miss seeing one another and we are excited to return to campus and welcome students, faculty and staff back, we must take appropriate precautions to ensure the health and safety of everyone on campus.
Our Academic Affairs team has been working to develop a plan for the late summer term and the fall semester. If the mandate that all instruction be virtual through June 30 ends as expected, we will bring back spring-term CTE classes in the late summer so students who require hands-on lab time can complete their required coursework. Faculty will use an open lab format to accommodate students’ schedules.
Additionally, we have a handful of math and science classes that plan to be on campus in the latter part of the summer. We are working closely with facilities to ensure social distancing and deep cleaning protocols are in place. Numerous planning walk-throughs of instructional and gathering spaces are happening now and will be ongoing over the next several weeks.
Because the governor and the chancellor have declared healthcare workers, paramedics and police as essential, CSN has received permission to bring back those academic programs early. The Law Enforcement Training Academy continues offering instruction, and EMS and paramedic classes returned the week of May 4. Health Sciences areas will likely resume this month.
There have understandably been many questions about what our fall 2020 schedule will actually look like. While we cannot predict what the virus will do in the fall, we recognize that we need to ensure academic continuity for our students. Our first step has been to group our large and diverse course offerings into the four categories outlined below.
Note that we will be mindful of special populations when making our plans: veterans, international students, students on academic probation, students who have been unsuccessful in the remote instructional environment in spring 2020, students with disabilities, and other disadvantaged student groups.
Online
While we will continue to offer online instruction to meet student demand, we will also make sure that all our course offerings have a robust online component. Everyone will begin the semester understanding that technology will be used to some extent for all classes in case we are forced to return to a remote learning mode.
Traditional face-to-face instruction
On campus, we will implement strict social distancing practices, the use of personal protective equipment, and deep cleaning protocols in face-to-face classes. This safety measure will require us to schedule all face-to-face classes with 30-minute breaks in between, to use a flipped classroom/hybrid model, and to be creative in the ways we deliver instruction.
CTE and lab-based courses
Hands-on experiences are required for many science, healthcare and CTE courses, and we will ensure that the full selection of courses required for students to continue on their degree path is available to our students in these programs.
High Enrollment/Low Success courses
It will be important for us to offer face-to-face instructional options for courses that we know are challenging for students – and to consider embedded tutors, librarians, supplemental instruction, and other resources to help students in these classes.
As I noted, the fall 2020 semester will not be a traditional semester at CSN, but we will offer a full array of courses for our students. They – and our entire community – are counting on us.
Thank you all for remaining Vegas strong and CSN proud. Stay safe and God bless.
Federico Zaragoza
President
College of Southern Nevada