BACK TO COLLEGE

St. Clair to resume on-site classes

St. Clair College announced Tuesday that, in large part, students will return to campus for in-person learning this fall.

College president Patti France made the announcement shortly after the Minister for Colleges and Universities, Jill Dunlop, toured St. Clair's new Sports Park and health science labs.

The decision comes on the heels of an announcement Monday by Dunlop's ministry instructing postsecondary institutions to prepare for in-person learning this fall without capacity limits or physical distancing.

The ministry told the institutions to plan for how learning would continue in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.

In a letter to students and staff, France noted: “During that past almost year-and-a-half, we did what we had to do. Now, we can joyfully return to doing what we want to do: namely, to teach and provide a host of services to students in face-to-face fashion, coupled with celebrating a social atmosphere of fun and friendship in the college's non-academic activities.”

St. Clair ceased in-person instruction in mid-march of 2020, when the pandemic first arose in this area and across the country.

In short order, the college converted the curriculum-delivery method of almost all of its 100plus programs to online lecturing, which allowed 2019-20 students to complete their academic year.

“The pandemic made remote instruction a necessity, and faculty, staff and students made it a success,” France said. “The ingenuity, adaptability and persistence of both teachers and learners allowed us to continue to deliver an excellent post-secondary education throughout the pandemic.”

Sixteen St. Clair programs will continue to be offered in a strictly online format, at least during the fall due to the fact that a substantial portion of their enrolment is international students who still cannot come to Canada at this time.

Six other programs will be delivered in both an online and in-person manner, reflecting the fact that their enrolments are almost equally divided between domestic and international students.

The ministry said universities and colleges will continue to follow all public health and workplace safety rules, including masks indoors. It also said schools would have the flexibility to offer teaching in a variety of ways including virtual and hybrid models.

The University of Windsor is planning limited in-person class instruction as well as hybrid and online formats.

“Without further direction, I can't see us changing our course,” said Jess Dixon, chair of the University of Windsor's Return to Campus Action Group. “At this point, we don't have a whole lot of guidance. (The government announcement) was pretty broad sweeping statements.”

Dixon did say the university was able to increase capacity for in-person classes and bump up the number of on-campus activities in accordance with the province moving to Step 3 of its reopening plan.

“These are all exciting things we are working towards,” he said. “We're continuing to be flexible as new regulations come out.”

He noted the university is in the midst of fall registration right now.

“To flip our timetable now would be a bit unfair and perhaps not even possible,” he said.