The pandemic has thrown educators many curve balls. From budget challenges to reconstructing the physical environment, to testing, to adapting our curricula and pedagogies to ensure the success of all students, especially those who are neurodiverse and students with disabilities, we have had to learn on the fly, to innovate, and evolve our practices as the pandemic continues. To effectively function remotely, we have had to remain malleable, adjusting as the local trajectory of this global health crisis changes. Will classes be online or remote this year, this semester, this week? What will enrollment be ultimately? We have had to plan for so many contingencies and to be prepared for the unknown. What a period this has been!
Despite the challenges, at GCC and across the local higher education and K-12 sectors, we have seen our educators innovate and adapt in ways that many of us may not have thought possible before COVID-19. At GCC, we have been reflecting on the innovations and adaptations that we have had to make. We are asking ourselves what emerging, high-impact, and best practices can we bring into the post-pandemic world with us. We know that the world to which we will return will not be what it was before.
At GCC, we believe that we will emerge an even stronger institution after this pandemic is over. Before COVID-19, we were working on our five-year strategic plan. In some ways, the timing of this global crisis was the best sustainability case study, table-top exercise that we could have. Rather than dealing with potentials, scenarios, and simulated environments, we were handed a real time challenge that pushed us to critically think through our strategic directions, tactics, learning, and operations. Because of COVID-19, we are becoming a much better student-ready college.
The tradition in higher education has been to ensure that students are college-ready when they cross our threshold. The reality is that this has worked for some students, but not all. For many, the challenges affecting their readiness were through no fault of their own. So, why should those young people and adults coming to college to further themselves have to struggle even more? As an industry, for too long, we have put the onus on students, regardless of their lived experiences and circumstances.
At GCC, we have committed to serving the whole student, taking into account their academic success and their well-being as people. No matter from where, or how students comes to us, we are ready to educate them. From early college, dual enrolled, to adults, we stand ready to serve. We commit to ensuring that they amass the social capital conducive to their academic and career success, and their success as engaged citizens and stewards of our community.
Whether you are teaching a first-grader, a teenager, or a college student on Zoom and keeping the curriculum interesting to maintain their attention, kudos to you!
Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández is president of Greenfield Community College.