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As spring enrollment opens, SCCC allows full capacity in classrooms

LIBERAL, Kan. — Seward County Community College will open its spring semester enrollment Nov. 1, allowing full capacity in classrooms. The college announced the plan Oct. 22, 2021.

“We are committed to student success,” said SCCC Vice President of Academic Affairs Luke Dowell. “For many of our students, that has proven to be face-to-face instruction whenever possible. Enrollment, retention, and success are all vital elements of what we do and we believe these can be enhanced by allowing for full capacity classrooms.”

The college’s COVID response team continues to focus on health and safety for students and employees, Dowell noted.

“A key point of data that we used to make this decision is that we have not had indications of spread of the virus on our campus even when we modified our amount of spacing in some classrooms, shifted to a mask optional policy, and relaxed the mask policy in the dorms from the start of the semester,” he said. “With each of these changes we watched to see if evidence of campus spread popped up, and it has not. This gives us confidence to take one more step to get back to business as normal.”

As outlined in the October update to the SCCC COVID Playbook, faculty still have the option of requiring masks in their classrooms and may also choose to offer a hybrid model for their classes in order to control the number of face-to-face students. The total enrollment numbers for all classes, whether fully face-to-face or presented in a hybrid fashion, need to return to pre-COVID levels, Dowell said.

The COVID response team will remain vigilant with best practices for wellness and reporting to monitor campus-wide exposure to COVID.

“We continue everyone to encourage hand washing and use of hand sanitizers,” Dowell said, “and we continue to encourage students who are sick to stay home. Remote options for students who do so will be available, and self-reporting for positive cases or exposure to positive cases is expected. Continuing to track cases will be vital as we move forward.”

Because enrollment for spring begins in a week’s time, students should be aware of the modality listings in the SCCC class schedule for Spring 2022.

“Advisors will be emphasizing the importance of this,” Dowell said. “It is important for students to know what kind of class they have enrolled in, and what is expected in terms of attendance.”

Dowell thanked instructors, advisors, and students for their flexibility and hard.

“We appreciate the extraordinary efforts from everyone in the Saints family, and we’re grateful for everyone continuing to work together to get through and thrive in these challenging times.”

CARES Act HEERF Funds, Round 4