Some in-person learning, some positive COVID-19 cases at local colleges
The fall terms are well underway at Thurston County’s three major colleges, and the experience so far is about operating successfully in a pandemic, which means mostly online learning and taking the necessary precautions to prevent an outbreak of the virus.
And so far The Evergreen State College, Saint Martin’s University and South Puget Sound Community College have been able to avoid what has happened at larger schools in the state. More than 200 people have tested positive for COVID-19 at the University of Washington.
Some positive COVID-19 cases have been reported at the area schools, but in small numbers.
Saint Martin’s has had one positive case and SPSCC three, according to school officials. At Evergreen, after two rounds of tests on students living on campus, the results were negative, President George Bridges said.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t have them, but we are prepared,” he said.
Saint Martin’s has had no recent positive cases.
“There have been no new positive cases for COVID-19 reported for over five weeks for Saint Martin’s,” spokeswoman Genevieve Chan said in an email. “We had one positive case earlier in the semester but they have since recovered and been cleared by the county public health department to return to campus for classes.”
All three schools also are dealing with slightly lower or flat enrollment, but have initiated plans to address it, particularly at the public, four-year liberal arts college in Olympia.
Evergreen
Fall enrollment at Evergreen landed at 2,291 students, down about 6 percent from its goal, but higher than the low end of the projection, which was around 2,050 students.
About 250 of those students are living on campus and have been subject to health and safety rules tied to COVID-19, such as testing and wearing masks. All students, staff and faculty must complete health verification forms before they visit the campus, spokeswoman Christine Hoffmann said.
Most classes are online, but between 5-8 percent of classes have some form of in-person instruction, or can be held outdoors.
“It’s going to be that way next quarter and into the spring,” President Bridges said.
Junior Rano Cohen, who transferred to Evergreen last fall, said she and her peers aren’t thrilled with online learning, but she’s willing to do it because safety comes first.
She also has adjusted to the remote learning experience, realizing she had to establish a routine to be successful. Initially, the 19-year-old rolled out of bed, stumbled to her laptop and began her day. Now, she rises early and is dressed, ready to learn.
“It helps me feel like I’m in a classroom,” she said.
One downside to online learning is that when she turns on the computer camera, her private space becomes a public one.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” said Cohen, who is working toward an undergraduate degree in science, with an emphasis in physics and applied math.
Cohen said she is aware of students who took a year off in hopes of avoiding remote learning, but Cohen said she did not want to put her life on hold.
Despite being online, she still values an Evergreen education that emphasizes advancement and growth over meeting standards boiled down to a letter grade.
Meanwhile, while coping with COVID-19, Evergreen also is focused on growing enrollment, President Bridges said.
The school wants to forge stronger relationships with regional community colleges, and is set to re-introduce one program and launch some new ones, he said.
The masters in teaching program will be-relaunched in spring — not as a two-year program but as a program that can be completed in one year, Bridges said. Evergreen also wants to introduce a handful of short-term certificate programs in fall 2021 that would target adult learners, such as programs tied to workforce development or the agricultural industry, he said.
And a name change has been proposed for Evergreen, one that might re-christen the school as Evergreen State University.
Bridges acknowledged that such a change might help with student recruitment, but he also called it a premature discussion because a name change requires legislative approval.
“It’s not to say that we won’t pursue it, but we need to have a pretty robust set of programs and schools to justify that name change,” he said. “We will get there, but not this coming year.”
Saint Martin’s
The private, four-year, Benedictine school in Lacey started the year with around 1,600 students, about what the university had a year ago.
“While we had slightly fewer first-year (students), we saw stronger retention and more returning students,” spokeswoman Chan said in an email.
Its course offerings have been online, face-to-face with masking and social distancing, and a combination of the two, she said.
The college is testing students for COVID-19 frequently.
“We are doing spot testing twice a week, about 30 people each time, and that’s drawing from a group of residential students, commuter students coming to campus for classes and staff/faculty coming to campus to work,” Chan said in an email. “Our athletic teams are being tested at a more frequent rate.”
Saint Martin’s also is taking steps to prevent an outbreak over the holidays and spring break.
After Thanksgiving, classes will be moved to online through the end of the semester, Chan said, followed by some tweaks in spring, including a one-week delay in the spring semester.
“We are also removing spring break week to mitigate the risk of the virus from travel and instead will have a mid-semester spring break day to create a three-day weekend in March,” she said. “We are still reviewing what the breakdown will be in terms of online/hybrid/face-to-face.”
The university also has launched its first doctoral program in leadership studies. Twenty-two of the school’s 245 graduate program students are enrolled in the new program.
SPSCC
Enrollment at the two-year community college also is down about 6 percent overall to 4,000 students this fall, college spokeswoman Kelly Green said.
“The vast majority of our classes are online,” she said, although there are exceptions for the technical and medical programs that require hands on learning, such as welding, automotive and nursing classes.
Those students are screened daily for COVID-19, she said.
Although overall enrollment was down, the college saw growth in its popular Running Start program, which allows area high school students to earn college and high school credits by taking classes at the community college.
However, SPSCC’s population of foreign students has fallen because of COVID-19 restrictions, Green said.
Enrollment for certain programs is very strong, she said, such as the relatively new craft brewing program, which has 32 students, about the maximum for that program.
Green said the college is budgeted where it needs to be. “We’re in one of the better positions,” she said.
North Thurston High School student Nadaa Elbarbary is in her second year of Running Start, with plans to either attend Saint Martin’s University or UW after she finishes high school.
Before the pandemic, Elbarbary had some experience with online learning, which she believes has helped her better cope with online learning this year.
But how will the 17-year-old feel if she has to continue to study online at the four-year college of her choice?
“I understand the circumstances because it’s a serious issue,” she said about the virus, adding that her parents want her to study online, too. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
