As the spring semester comes to a close, ACC board of trustees engaged in discussion as to how feasible it will be to open the campus to on-site courses in the fall.
Allen Community College has already determined that all summer courses will be conducted completely online and that the campus will remain closed to the public.
Additional consequences of the closure are that there will be no food service on campus during the summer, and only three students will be living in the dorms (as they have few other feasible alternatives).
During discussion over whether the campus might be open to in-person classes come fall, president John Masterson highlighted institutional language stating that ACC strives to provide both “quality education” as well as a “safe” campus.
Given this emphasis on safety, it seemed the overarching sentiment of the board gravitated towards a fall closure, though this has not yet been decided.
Some evidence that things are headed in this direction, however, include Masterson outlining policies for campus employees that he described as “more strict than the state regulations are.”
This included encouraging employees to wear face masks while in public, as well as taking their temperatures on a daily basis.
From a business-oriented standpoint, “I don’t feel that pressure” to reopen, Masterson added. Others on the board pointed out there are potential legal liabilities to consider as well.
Trustees said that a worst-case scenario might involve incoming students from across the nation and world bringing the virus with them.
In turn, trustees worried that ACC might be indirectly responsible for an outbreak of cases in Allen County, which so far has been spared the virus. Across Kansas, 7,500 cases have been confirmed.
Moreover, concerns were raised about what to do if an out-of-state or out-of-country student contracted the virus, but had nowhere else beyond campus to retreat for quarantine.
On this front, Masterson said it was obvious ACC wasn’t going to tell students: “Hold your nose for two weeks, because your roommate’s got the COVID!”
All joking aside, Masterson clearly wanted to press home the point that COVID-19 is “not a political issue; it’s a life-and-death issue.”
Trustee Vickie Curry chimed in, saying that given the gravity of the situation, it’s important to “prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
So far, only a single case of COVID-19 has been linked to an ACC student (at the Burlingame campus), though she contracted the virus weeks after the campus closure.
