Evergreen will rein in classroom-based learning for fall because of COVID-19 concerns
The Evergreen State College will rein in its hybrid approach to learning this fall because of COVID-19 concerns, President George Bridges said Thursday during a special meeting of the Board of Trustees.
The hybrid approach would have offered a combination of in-person learning and remote instruction, with in-person learning taking place at about 10 percent of school programs. Now, it will be much smaller than that because of concerns about the virus, he said.
Bridges said he wants to avoid the example set by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which welcomed students back to campus and then sent them home after a COVID-19 outbreak.
“It spread like wildfire,” he said about the virus.
He also said the college has a limited ability to ensure classrooms are clean and disinfected, plus there’s the challenge of asymptomatic students and if the college has to quarantine an entire classroom.
Bridges also provided an update on fall enrollment, which could drop as much as 10-15 percent, he said.
That range is in line with the other four-year public universities in the state, and the decline is being driven entirely by COVID-19, he said. If enrollment does fall as much as 15 percent, that would be in line with an earlier forecast, which would put total fall enrollment for the college at around 2,000 students.
Also on Thursday:
Evergreen’s vice president of finance last month walked the board through an initial round of cuts and furloughs to address a 10 percent cut in the college’s operations budget, or about $5.3 million. The budget shortfall is also related to the pandemic.
The impacts to faculty weren’t known then, but they are now after the board on Thursday approved a memorandum of understanding with the United Faculty of Evergreen.
Board of Trustees Chairwoman Karen Fraser summarized the impacts to faculty for the 2020/2021 school year: A salary increase of 3 percent was suspended and faculty compensation was reduced 10 percent through furloughs and reduced teaching loads. Senior administration compensation also was reduced by 10 percent, she said.
Other cost-cutting moves, according to the memorandum:
▪ Full-time library faculty, administrative faculty on 12-month contracts, and graduate directors will take a total of 20 furlough days, distributed over the academic year.
▪ Curriculum area team leaders, faculty fellows, and faculty advisers will teach their planned offerings through the academic year and take the equivalent of 20 furlough days from their administrative assignments.
Grant funds
Amid the challenges of COVID-19, the college received some good news this week.
Evergreen has been awarded two five-year grants by the U.S. Department of Education that total $3.1 million.
The money will be used to provide first-generation and low-income students, and those with disabilities, with services and support to succeed in school, the college announced.
