SMC Board of Trustees Unveil Fall Developments
Dr. Kathryn Jeffery speaks during the Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees Regular Meeting in Los Angeles, Calif. The five-hour Zoom meeting centered around the school's COVID-19 response, quarterly fiscal budget, and construction plans for a future Arts Center. (Michael Goldsmith / The Corsair)
The true reality of Santa Monica College’s (SMC) future as a remote learning environment showed its face at the college’s Board of Trustees meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, which was held via Zoom. The discussion of possible technological shortfalls, severance of academic programs, and reopening development plans only scratched the surface of SMC’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) response.
SMC President and Superintendent Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery began the meeting by reviewing the school’s recent decision to cancel all in-person fall classes and go completely online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Jeffrey said that upon consideration for the “safety, health, and well-being of our community…it seems unlikely that a vaccine will become widely available before early 2021.” She acknowledged the difficulty this decision posed for faculty and students, stating that, “this is a heavy lift across the board for all of us.”
Jeffery highlighted the many areas where the SMC community had filled the gaps for students in need, including providing free Chromebook's for mobile computer access, creating a food pantry program capable of feeding hundreds of students every week, and staffing an emotional support hotline.
Jeffery continued by saying that, “our goal [here at SMC] is to ensure the most equitable and accommodating environment as possible.” She praised school staff for switching their spring classes from in-person to online within days, stating that they had “performed a minor miracle.”
Dr. Jennifer Merlic, Vice President of Academic Affairs at SMC, then discussed lessons learned when it came to teaching in the new reality of social distancing. “We’ve had a lot of input from students for faculty to not teach in a synchronic mode,” Merlic said. She instead recommended that teachers anticipate that some students would not be able to attend all classes or keep up with schoolwork in a timely manner, due to unavoidable life circumstances such as having poor internet connections or additional family responsibilities like full-time parenting or caretaking.
Merlic also stressed how SMC’s largest department, its nursing section, has had to adapt to COVID-19. “Nursing students this spring have not been able to do [their required] clinicals…[and] until we do clinicals, we can’t graduate students.” She mentioned how most hospitals had completely terminated their existing agreements with SMC’s nursing department to accept student trainees, and those that still agreed to accept student clinicals, such as the Veterans Administration, would not commit to being able to provide them with personal protective equipment.
During the meeting’s public comments section, Associated Students (AS) President-elect Tafari Alan expressed concern over “the negative impact of online proctoring services like Proctorio.” She raised questions over equitability, pointing out that all students would need not just a computer and internet access, but also a working webcam and a microphone. Alan also raised questions of privacy, describing how Proctorio monitors an individual’s entire computer screen, as well as requiring the user to show a 360 degree view of their home environment.
Academic Senate President Nate Donahue also shared Alan's concerns, stating that he would not be personally accepting of such invasive requirements if he were a current student and that he is “anti-Proctorio.”
Santa Monica College Police Department (SMCPD) Chief of Police Johnnie Adams followed with an update on the planned phases of reopening. He stated that based on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s six critical indicators, Santa Monica was “currently in phase one, [which] allowed for regional options based on [the] severity” of the situation. Adams clarified that SMC could begin to reopen “in late phase two,” which would start “mainly with kindergarten through 12th grade, [and] colleges later on.”
Adams also stated SMC was in the process of creating a “dirty room,” which would allow the school to collect and store property that had been loaned out to students and faculty for up to 36 hours. The chief also mentioned plans to open up a coronavirus testing site at the Bundy campus in the near future, as well as set up an N95 mask distribution system for the SMC community.
The next regular meeting of the Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees will be held on the first Tuesday of next month, June 2, 2020. All meetings will be held via Zoom until further notice.