COVID-19 pushes Folsom Lake College to go online for fall semester

Folsom Lake College has announced it will move to online classes for the 2020 fall semester. Los Rios Community College District explained that COVID-19 restrictions were a factor in the decision.The Los Rios Community College District willmoveto a fully online fall schedule, due to novel coronavirus concerns.On Monday, district officials said there will be limited exceptions for classes that cannot be converted online and officials are working on options for those classes."We're certain there are going to be people for whom this is not great news," said Gabe Ross, associate vice chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District. "We also know that we have to take, first of all, the safety of our students, faculty and staff above all else."The decision to move all courses online for the fall 2020 semester affects the district's 75,000 students from four colleges: American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake and Sacramento City."We're really missing out on that connection and instructor being there to help you," said first year Folsom Lake College student Sydney Heglund. "But it's gotten much better with time."Ross said, "Certainly, we want to get back to those face-to-face interactions with students that are such an important part of the college experience, as quickly as possible. But we gotta do it safely."The message was sent by Los Rios CommunityCollege District Chancellor Brian King, American River College President Thomas Greene, Cosumnes River College President Ed Bush, Folsom Lake College President Whitney Yamamura and Sacramento City College President Michael Gutierrez."With news in the past couple weeks from the Governor's Office that social distancing guidelines are likely to be in place this fall, we have all expressed concerns about our district and colleges' capacity to operationalize those measures at scale," the message to students read. "We also recognize that it is highly unlikely that we will have access to the testing, contact-tracing or personal protective equipment necessary to open our campuses broadly."On Monday, a statement to staff explained why the decision was being made in May."We appreciate the amount of work that a shift like this means in a district our size and do not take this decision lightly, which underscores why we must make this decision now even as we know that we don't know what the public health dynamics will be in August," officials said in the email. "We are also working hard on additional district-wide opportunities to increase our capacity to support more faculty and staff in their online planning."Officials said in the message the Los Rios Community College campuses will remain closed through at leastthe Fourth of July holiday."We will continue to have a small number of essential staff on campusbut only as needed and will be providing scheduled opportunities for students, faculty and staff to come to campuses to gather or return necessary materials and equipment in the coming weeks," the email said. The fall 2020 course schedule is set to go online May 22.