Columbus State went online early
March brought a wave of college and university closures across Ohio.
By June, leaders on many campuses thought they’d be able to reopen their classrooms and residence halls in the fall and have at least some in-person classes.
But now, as summer wanes, many schools are scrapping in-person classes and delaying returns to campus amid increased COVID-19 cases and pandemic-fueled uncertainty.
There’s no avoiding the unpredictability of the coronavirus for colleges, but Columbus State Community College has managed to avoid late-summer decisions, announcements or walkbacks. That’s because, college leaders said, they made a decision early on to commit to a nearly completely remotelearning model this fall.
“What we wanted to do was be the voice of certainty, to be the calm in what we know is a very chaotic situation,” said Rebecca Butler, Columbus State’s executive vice president.
The community college announced in June — without fanfare — that the fall 2020 semester would be delivered almost entirely remotely. The only classes that will be held in person are the ones that require hands-on experience or college equipment, such as welding, automotive, HVAC and certain health courses.
Those equate to roughly about 10% of the college’s courses, although the figures continue to fluctuate.
Other community colleges across the state have planned similar approaches, banking on their affordability and certainty during a school year dotted with question marks.
Columbus State students have felt the impacts of the pandemic, President David Harrison said. Some suddenly have children home from elementary school, or have dealt with employment challenges themselves.
"Our students lead complicated lives, and what happens in K-12 impacts our students — uncertainty with their employers impacts our students,” he said. “We really want to be the partner they can count on when there's so much other uncertainty going on around them.”
Community colleges such as Columbus State also have some advantages in adjusting to a global pandemic that four-year universities don’t, Harrison said. Their business model centers on helping students in difficult times such as economic downturns. Community colleges also don’t have to consider residence halls in their planning.
Our whole business model is based on being there when students are ready for us,” Harrison said. “So it's not a matter of crafting a freshman class that’s a four-year cohort. It's really designing our approach around students’ lives.”
And because students’ lives have suddenly become a lot more complicated, “we’re trying to be simpler,” Harrison said.
But will it pay off?
The college anticipates autumn enrollment to be flat or slightly down from a year ago, but administrators hope to outperform those forecasts as students make final decisions in the coming weeks and navigate changing plans at other institutions, Columbus State spokesman Brent Wilder said in an email. The college had about 27,600 students enrolled in the fall of 2019, according to the 15th-day headcount reported to the state.
Columbus State had likewise predicted that enrollment for the summer term would be flat to slightly lower, but it ended up higher than a year ago, Wilder said.
The decision to commit to a mostly virtual approach also led to early conversations with K-12 school officials about options for College Credit Plus, Ohio’s dual-enrollment program for seventh- through 12th-graders to earn college credit either on a college campus, online or through college courses taught at their high schools. From those conversations, Columbus State developed an online program for its College Credit Plus offerings.
“Then (K-12 districts) could do what they need to do for their communities, and know that we were there for them,” Butler said. “And that College Credit Plus was going to continue, and continue in a robust fashion.”
Many community college faculty members have experience teaching online, said Cathy Ritterbusch, associate professor of paralegal studies at Columbus State.
“So we're used to being adaptable. We’re used to being flexible,” Ritterbusch said.
Professors and students are connecting in new ways with online courses, she said. Instructors are suddenly meeting their students’ families or children, and students are seeing the human side of their professors — where they live and what their lives are like.
“It's not what we would wish for, of course, right? We love to be in person,” Ritterbusch said. “But we also love to be online, and we’re able to be creative in the ways that we deepen our relationships with students, whether that’s in the classroom or in a setting like we’re in right now.”
Community colleges — and Columbus State in particular — are built for this, Butler said.
“Our entire calling and our entire mission is to help students and our community to navigate through difficult times,” she said. “Certainly, this is an incredibly difficult time for our community, but we know how to do this.” jsmola@dispatch.com @jennsmola