By James Tubb
BELLEVILLE – There will be no full return to school for Loyalist students this winter semester.
The college released a series of updates Oct 6., to inform its staff and current or incoming students on how the school planned to deliver the winter semester.
The plan is for the school to continue in delivering its programs through a combination of remote and blended (a mix of remote and on-campus) learning. This will be a continuation of some of the current delivery, with the plan for individual courses to still be worked out.
The update provided to current students regarding Loyalist’s plan for the winter semester.
The updates came from the offices of president and CEO of Loyalist College, Ann Marie Vaughan, and senior vice-president of academic, Ron Byrne.
“What we are doing is constantly monitoring everything and consulting with government officials to be as responsive as possible,” Bryne said.
For him, the plan helps illustrate how Loyalist is doing everything it can to help its community of students, staff and facility.
“With emerging spikes in COVID-19, what we are doing is setting the framework so it will remain the same and figuring out what courses will be offered in person or not. Those are still being worked on,” he said.
Byrne said that the plan worked well during the fall semester but that there was still some student confusion with which courses or programs were in-person or online. For the winter semester, he ensured that students will be informed more clearly of how they will have their courses.
“Students will be told exactly whether or not their courses will be face to face or online. We hope that that will remove any of the confusion,” Byrne said.
Loyalist has worked to ensure that students are able to receive as close to the same education as possible amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They have given out close to 6600 face masks, made the student access lab a socially distanced environment and tripled their laptop program for students.
He commended both the staff and students for their acceptance of the plans put in place for the fall and how well everyone has worked together to keep each other safe.
“Overall the community of staff, faculty, students and the surrounding community has really stepped up together to support each other,” he said.
For Byrne, the biggest positive has been how Loyalist staff has reacted to each hurdle along the way. Keeping the focus on ensuring everyone stays safe while also appropriately responding to any important issues as they emerged.
His hope is that they will be able to continue with their plan and ensure that students get to experience Loyalist in as close to the same way as before the pandemic as possible.
“Whatever we need to do to keep staff, students and faculty safe. That’s what we will do,” Byrne said.
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