Chico State
Debra Larson explained how the decision making process for the university evolved over the last month towards a total shutdown through finals week, joining all California colleges at this time.
The process of reaching such a decision began in late February when all California State University campuses were “monitoring the developing coronavirus epidemic in other countries such as China, Italy and South Korea,” Hutchinson said. By March 4, a state of emergency was declared by Gov. Gavin Newsom and CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White began calling meetings “nearly every day” she said, requesting emergency plans from all campuses.
“Things were happening incredibly quickly,” Hutchinson said. By March 10 the university received direction to “begin exploring alternatives” for conducting education online and to give faculty “two-four faculty development days” — allowing teachers several days to prepare their course to be delivered online.
“During that time, we thought we would be coming back March 25 for classes,” Hutchinson said — but by March 18 it was announced that the campus would be online for the rest of the semester with all campus facilities shut down.
“Things were coming at us so fast — as we were getting to construct the various scenarios, the information and the communication internally was very active,” Larson said. “Starting at around March 5 was when for me, it really became nonstop work. If you think of Chico State as the equivalent of a super tanker if you will, which involves 3,000 sailors to be able to move it — what we were doing around that first week of March was taking a super tanker and starting to nudge it, as the COVID-19 virus became more apparent.
“We were evolving as the virus was evolving.”
Before deciding to shut down the campus for the rest of the semester, “Every decision we made was informed by evidence and data,” Hutchinson said.
“Certainly, paying attention to the governor’s order, it became very clear in order to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 we needed for folks to truly shelter in place. We understood the gravity of the pandemic and it made sense at that point to launch everything on virtual and close our residence halls so that students could stay in place, wherever they were.
“Our hope was that they would shelter in place with their families, wherever that may be.”
Parsons said her mission has been to tell students “stay safe, we’ll support you from home.”
“If somebody did not have a safe place to be, they could come home,” Parsons said, referring to giving students a place to live once they had to leave their dorms.
“We currently have 88 students living with us, and 20 have reached out to say, ‘I’m in a place that’s not good for me.’ We didn’t kick anybody out that needed a home.”
Instead, the university moved students into the off- campus University Village for now. The university is next deciding how to return all property in the residence halls back to each student, after sending “280 boxes” of academic materials from dormitory rooms to students who have returned to homes elsewhere.
“We want to give them back their property as soon as possible, but we want to do it in a way that respects the statewide ordinances and keeps our staff, students and community safe,” Parsons said.
Moving classes online
Although there is typically a rigorous review process for moving and approving of a class for entirely online instruction, Hutchinson said, “In times of crises, the chancellor has the opportunity to declare a policy to which we all had to adhere.”
“Beginning March 10 he called guidelines for altering class delivery … and had conversations with the academic statewide senate,” she said. “This is a state of crisis, a state of emergency, and he took deliberate action and I’m glad he did that.”
And while faculty only had about three instructional days to move classes online, “Not only did we provide them with as much support as we could transitioning their teaching … but each college worked with their own faculty to set up,” Larson said. About 200 laptops were deployed to faculty, staff and students, as well as troubleshooting for those who have needed help connecting equipment to Wifi hot spots.
“Indeed, this is hard for folks to move into this environment, but I am getting reports all the time that, generally speaking, the faculty have been responding well and working hard towards that end, understanding that we have no other choice,” Larson said. “It’s been quite a successful launch into this new direction, albeit that it’s not perfect and we’re telling everyone it’s not perfect.”
Some changes the university is still considering are what to reimburse students for, due to moving classes online and restricting all access to campus facilities.
Parsons said it isn’t clear if there will be any reimbursements of student tuition fees that pay for use of campus facilities such as athletic services and the Wildcat Recreation Center, Meriam Library, the health center and other resources for students.
“Part of it is looking to see if we can continue to provide the same services virtually,” Parsons said, such as providing videos from the WREC gymnasium or teletherapy counseling to replace mental health services offered at the WellCat health center.
“We’re still analyzing whether that makes sense and, this far into the semester, whether it’s necessary to reimburse students at this point,” Parsons said. Although parking fees have been refunded as that cannot be virtually replaced, she said it is unclear if other services can’t be provided to students online.”
“Even though a facility may not be available, the service is available,” Hutchinson added.
“We think we’ve got students well supported,” Parsons added.
Grading issues
With class expectations and syllabi affected by moving online, grading students fairly during this time is an issue acknowledged by multiple faculty. A pass or fail, also called credit or no credit, grading system is being considered to address this problem.
Larson said after receiving guidance from the chancellor’s office, given oversight by state legislation, the university has to consider different impacts on some students that could result from approving a credit/no credit system.
“The idea is, broadly, the Academic Senate would consider offering students the option to elect a credit/ no credit option in the grading for all classes or a certain segment of classes,” Larson said. While the senate will consider the option Thursday, the potential negative impacts of such a system must be considered, Larson added.
“A credit/no credit grade election can have negative impacts of certain groups of students if they don’t have knowledge of what those impacts are,” she said. Veteran and athletic students depend on receiving grades for their performance, as do students who must demonstrate their performance to continue receiving financial aid. For now, this option is next being considered by the senate.
Ongoing challenges
To Hutchinson, the biggest issue so far is “connectivity” and getting students the means to access online classwork.
“There really is a need for more bandwidth in this town — my own bandwidth in my house is subpar, especially in the afternoon,” Hutchinson said.
Student access to basic needs is “always a concern,” she said — “we do have a large concern about students who are housing insecure and food insecure in this.”
However, Hutchinson added that she finds Chico remarkable for being able to face multiple adversity “as a community.”
“We don’t run away, we lean in and work really hard to find solutions,” she said. “We’re doing it as fast as we can, as we get changes based on evidence and being as informed as we can be. It’s not perfect, but kudos and compliments go out to faculty and staff for being able to in less than a month.”
“Have grace and patience, be kind to one another in this,” Hutchinson said.
“Things were coming at us so fast — as we were going to construct the various scenarios, the information and the communication internally was very active. ... We were evolving as the virus was evolving.” — President Gayle E. Hutchinson, Chico State