BEATRICE – With summer classes set to begin at Southeast Community College, the school is preparing for how it will continue to handle COVID-19 issues heading toward the fall.


Beginning June 1st, SCC will begin a few weeks of a test run, as staff members return.
"Basically from June one to July one, that'll be that first phase where we continue to plan for phase two and three during that time. But, we use it as a trial run to see what is working and see what needs to be tweaked. We're going to limit the number of people, so we can navigate this thing, smoothly".


SCC President Dr. Paul Illich says on July 1st, the college will institute student labs emphasizing social distancing….and additional staff will be brought on board.
"From July 1, in phase two, students will have the ability to come on campus and engage in student services, registration....all those kinds of things....again, we'll be following certain protocols".


Campus Directors have developed plans within the three campuses of Southeast. Illich says the plans may be slightly different, based on campus needs. Milford Campus Director Ed Koster and an executive policy team has been coordinating the college’s preparations.
As for summer enrollment, Southeast Community College has about three thousand students, with 624 class sections for summer classes. When registration is completed, around 3,700 students are expected.


"For the fall, we're about 21-hundred students. This time last year, we had about 300 or so more. But, given the fact we've had no discovery days, no registration processes that we typically have...I feel pretty good about that number. In this situation, there's the law....and we're considered an essential function...but, then there's also making sure we're paying attention to the guidance of health officials. Just because we could do something, is it the right thing to do. So, we're trying to balance those two issues knowing we have a mission that we are pursuing".


Summer term classes at SCC begin May 27th, for five-week, eight-week or ten- week terms.


CARES Act funding is available for students, affected by the interruptions caused by the pandemic. Those are students eligible for federal financial aid. SCC received a total of $4.28 million in federal funding. Dean of Enrollment Services, Mike Pegram says at least 50-percent of that funding must go directly to students…with the remainder to cover costs of delivering education services.


"So, if a student was enrolled past March 13th and have completed the application and verified that they had to withdraw due to the disruption in campus services and they had eligible expenses, we are considering those".


Pegram says the college has received over one-thousand applications for the CARES Act funding.
"We have approved about 843...and that number is increasing. We're just under $700,000 awarded under the CARES Act, as of today".


The college set an initial funding amount of $1,000 per student. The CARES money can cover lost expenses such as housing, food, technology, health care, childcare and course materials. Students taking courses only online, were not eligible for the CARES Act funding.