BEATRICE – With the fall semester scheduled to start on Monday, the President of Southeast Community College says the school needs to be ready to pivot, should coronavirus numbers go south.


Dr. Paul Illich says precautions have been taken on SCC campuses as students return to classes, but the community college also has some built-in flexibility.
"Our main approach has been to keep our schedule intact, the way it was originally, but monitor it for demand for courses. If we see an increase in demand for online course, we've added some sections, based on that. We know that we are going to have students and faculty quarantined, so we want to make sure all faculty are reading to pivot to an online format".


The college purchased over 150 laptops for instructors.


Class sizes have been capped at 24 students…masks are being required and social distancing will be emphasized. Vice-President of Instruction, Joel Michaelis said the two guiding principals will be health and safety of students and staff….and providing the best possible education experience for students.
To that end, Michaelis said some mock class sessions were designed.


"With fellow faculty members and some folks in I.P., instructional designers...to sit in as students both in-person and zooming in....basically just to provide feedback on the difficulty".


Beatrice Campus Director Bob Morgan said one big part of preparing for the new term involves what’s being done with food service.
"Our food service director has been on top of that from day one, so we appreciate that, very much. We'll look at enrollments, by room. Safety and Security and I will be making one last round on all the classrooms to see where we're at. For the rooms, we have extra spaces and we'll move the chairs. The other thing we're trying to do is put down some painter's tape at the front of the room...the instructor's safety zone....so they know where their six or eight-foot zone is".


Milford Campus Director Ed Koster said because of a high concentration of technical programs on his campus, that presents a challenge.
"You just can move a precision machine from one room to another to expand lab spaces, so that's been a challenge. The other challenge we've been working through is with the cafeteria processes".


Koster said it’s an ongoing challenge to look at every process the college has, to ensure a safe fall term.
Morgan said the Beatrice Campus has provided space for those who may need to isolate or quarantine because of a positive coronavirus test.


Dr. Illich says there will be less staffing on site to start out the fall term, with some employees working remotely or rotating schedules. SCC is using campus response teams to address exposure cases, quickly.