Now that ACC students are home for the year, it’s possible to take stock of a semester plagued by COVID-19, but where the college continued to operate smoothly.
According to vice-president Cynthia Jacobson, the following COVID statistics were reported since Aug. 3, when the fall term began:
Two hundred fifty students were quarantined in total, with all but 20 of those students being on the Iola campus.
74 students tested positive for the novel coronavirus, all of which but seven were in Iola.
Regarding the faculty and staff, 32 employees were affected across the semester, with 24 placed in quarantine and eight testing positive.
At multiple points throughout the fall semester, the ACC campus was designated a COVID “hot spot” due to the total number of concurrent cases.
Moving forward, one issue that concerned president John Masterson was being able to continue a successful testing campaign.
Testing had been effective for the college in terms of preventing the spread of COVID-19, but it also carries a heavy price tag, and where it’s not clear where future funding for such efforts will come from.
Masterson added that he’d recently spoken with Sen. Jerry Moran about funding for testing, and about where such funding might come from. Masterson said he’d especially emphasized removing certain restrictions on CARES Act/SPARK money to help attend to the situation.
In the meantime, ACC is still placing restrictions on the size of crowds and groups on campus, but it seemed the sentiment was to focus methods like these rather than, say, not holding sporting events at all.
And the culture cultivated at ACC, encouraging having students protect themselves with masks, social distancing and more, has also been effective.
Special thanks were also given to new ACC theater instructor, Trevor Belt, for his innovative, socially distanced approach to performances during COVID-19.
Right now, though they are not returning again in person, students are preparing for finals across a number of disciplines.
And some new data shows that when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, ACC is performing better than its aspirant peers.
Another interesting data study involves the question as to whether co-curricular activities impede or bolster academic success, with the results of the study still forthcoming.
