All community colleges in Orange County will soon teach most, if not all, classes online, as officials take measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The colleges follow many others in Southern California — including UC Irvine, Chapman, Cal State Fullerton, USC, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach — that have said they will transition to online instruction.
Fullerton and Cypress colleges will cancel classes from Friday, March 13 to Tuesday, March 17 to train their staff in online teaching. Classes will resume, mostly online, Wednesday, March 18, officials at the North Orange County Community College District said in a statement. The district operates those two colleges and North Orange Continuing Education.
“As this week progressed, it became clear that responding to concerns of potential illness (reports of sick students or faculty, rumors that this or that student was exposed to someone with COVID-19, etc.) was creating a strain on campus resources and staff that we could not support,” Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling said in a letter to her employees on Thursday, March 12.
Cypress College officials in their letter to students said they had prepared for three weeks to transition to online classes. Before the state updated its guidance on Wednesday, March 11, only pre-approved courses could have been offered online, they said.
“For the limited amount of classes that will continue to be taught in-person, measures will be taken to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff through appropriate social distancing and sanitation methods,” district officials said.
North Orange Continuing Education will cancel in-person classes for its winter term starting Monday, March 16. As feasible, spring classes, which would start April 13, will be taught online, school officials said.
Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges will be on spring break from March 15 to March 21. When students return on Monday, March 23, they will take classes mostly online, officials at the South Orange County Community College District said in a statement.
Irvine Valley College Acting President Cindy Vyskocil told her students in an e-mail that officials can’t simply shut down the campus. Regulators require students to take a class for a certain number of hours to get credit, she said.
“I know that some of you are asking why can’t we simply close campus, the answer is that doing so would force you to make-up ‘seat time’ after the semester ends or lose credit, thereby putting you behind,” she said.
Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon colleges are suspending all in-person and on-campus classes and student support services from Friday, March 13 to Tuesday, March 17, officials at the Rancho Santiago Community College District said in a statement.
Officials said the suspension is “the first step in our transition process” to teach classes online.
Coast Community College District officials, in a statement, recommended instructors teach classes in an “alternative format” starting Monday, March 16, if possible. The district consists of Coastline Community College, Golden West College and Orange Coast College in western Orange County.
“Most classes should prepare to use an alternative format after Spring Break” which ends March 29, officials said.
Vanguard University in Costa Mesa is extending its spring break a week to March 27; the school may teach its classes online afterward, a university spokeswoman said in a statement.
Concordia University Irvine is canceling its face-to-face classes starting Friday, March 13. The school will teach its classes online starting Wednesday, March 18, officials said in a statement.