UNIVERSITY CENTER – The Delta College board of trustees has unanimously approved a temporary senate policy revision, extending the deadline for students to file for course withdrawals or pass/no credit (P/NC) grade.
The deadline for the winter semester is now set for Friday, April 24, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, instructor-initiated drops of students for missing “excessive number of class hours or instruction” has been temporarily suspended. Students who miss excessive hours will instead be referred to the counseling and advising office for advice.
Delta College president Jean Goodnow said in a memo to the board of trustees that this step is being taken to ensure that students are successful in completing the semester.
“We now need to pause and deal with some of the implications of the rapid succession of changes that have been made,” Goodnow stated in the memo. “Many students have never taken online classes and are struggling to learn the technology.”
As the college remains closed to the public, the on-campus computer labs are not accessible to students who need the proper technology to utilize online classes. Goodnow also pointed toward students’ additional child care responsibilities from the K-12 school shutdown, and the students who work in health care that have been required to work overtime hours.
At the meeting, Goodnow also announced that the college administration is looking into how the spring/summer semesters will be formatted and condensed, hinting that face-to-face instruction for that semester may need to be moved online as well.
In addition, the college administration is still trying to figure out what to do with some lab and skilled trade classes that are required to be held in-person.
“We don’t have answers to everything yet but we’re seeking to find a way to resolve that along with many of our sister institutions about what we’re going to do,” Goodnow said at the meeting.
The board held their first Zoom teleconference meeting – made possible by temporary revisions to the Open Meetings Act in Michigan allowing for governing bodies to hold virtual meetings – on Wednesday, April 1.
The Collegiate has also learned that the next board of trustees meeting – scheduled for Tuesday, April 14 at 7 p.m. – will also be held virtually via Zoom.
Further up-to-date information on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is made available for students at Delta’s coronavirus webpage.
