BLINN COLLEGE PREPARING FOR PHASED RETURN TO CAMPUS
Blinn College has announced its plans to resume in-person campus operations in the coming months.
Blinn Chancellor Dr. Mary Hensley sent out an update late Tuesday to faculty and staff, detailing how the three phases of returning to campus will work. In advance of the first phase, select Blinn personnel have returned to campus in anticipation of the safe return of College employees.
The first phase, which is tentatively scheduled to start Monday, June 15th, will focus on bringing back select key personnel needed to start essential services related to in-person work. Personnel will be allowed to return to on-site work, either because their presence on-site is required for management purposes, or because they can do their jobs most effectively on site. The College will continue to offer all in-campus services remotely. Employees selected for this first phase will be notified no later than Monday, June 1st.
Pending the success of the first phase, the second phase is scheduled to begin Monday, July 20th, and will return additional employees to on-site work at a level not to exceed half of full-time employees in a given area. This phase will include additional employees who can start offering limited on-campus services made available by appointment only. Services will be identified based on the advice of public health officials, the College’s business needs, and the input of individual departments. Employees selected for this phase will be notified no later than Monday, July 6th.
If the first two phases are successful, the College will advance to the third phase, which is scheduled to start Monday, August 17th. Additional employees would be returned to campus operations during this phase to provide an expanded selection of on-campus services. These selected employees will be notified no later than Monday, August 3rd.
In each phase, the College will work with local health officials to monitor and ensure that the risk of contagion is managed effectively before moving to the next phase.
This summer, the College will not host any events for external organizations, including meetings, banquets, luncheons, speeches, performances, and other gatherings. It will also not host summer camps, campus tours, or recruiting visits on any of its campuses. It anticipates such events will also be limited during the Fall semester, which is still scheduled to begin on Monday, August 24th.
The course schedule for the fall will offer face-to-face, blended, and fully online settings, with a concentration on the two latter choices. It will also include a significantly reduced number of 16-week courses in favor of 8-week courses and a smaller number of 4-week courses. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of the courses offered in the fall will be 16-week courses, which will primarily be skills- and performance-based courses, along with select laboratory, allied health, and technical and workforce education courses.
The full breakdown of the College’s phased return plan is available online at www.blinn.edu/alert/emergency-preparedness.html.