Trustees Approve Policy Changes to Help Students Affected by COVID-19

New Teacher Career Pathways to Be Added This Fall

May 6, 2020 ­— Richmond Community College’s Board of Trustees approved several one-time measures to its grading policies designed to help students who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The board met via virtual conference on Tuesday to approve these emergency changes, plus four new teacher career pathways for high school students in the Career & College Promise (CCP) program.

Emergency Policy Changes

Dr. Dale McInnis, president of RichmondCC, explained that students whose classes were temporarily suspended by COVID-19 have been given until mid-fall to complete their course work.

“These are students who were in hands-on technical courses, which were not able to be converted to an online format,” McInnis said. “We’re encouraging them to coordinate with their instructors to complete their course work this summer so they can retain as much of their skills and knowledge as possible.”

CCP students, or dually enrolled high school students, are not normally allowed to withdraw from their college classes, but under the new emergency plan approved by the board, they can choose to withdraw from a course, resulting in no grade nor credits for the class. CCP students can also opt to receive their current grade in the class.

The Board also approved the addition of service learning and academic honors to the RichmondCC’s grading policies for the 2020-2021 academic year. College instructors may include notations in a student’s transcripts about community service and academic achievements that go beyond the traditional scope of the required coursework. Completion of these components will be noted in students’ transcripts but will not carry an extra weight in terms of their GPA.

New Teacher Prep Pathways

The Board of Trustees also approved five new preparation standards and pathways for new teachers recently passed by the North Carolina Community College System. They are:

• Associate in Arts in Teacher Preparation
• Associate in Science in Teacher Preparation
• Career and College Promise College Transfer Pathway Leading to the Associate in Arts in Teacher Preparation
• Career and College Promise College Transfer Pathway Leading to the Associate in Science in Teacher Preparation
• Transfer Pathway Leading to the Associate in Science in Teacher Preparation

“This is a great opportunity for our high school students who aspire to become public school teachers because it creates a seamless transition into the schools of education with our UNC partners,” McInnis said. “By putting them in the right courses in the right order, we are saving students both time and money, while also supporting our local school systems to try to help fill the teacher shortage.”

More Nurses Graduating

In lieu of the current pandemic and the need for more healthcare workers, Janet Sims, Dean of Allied Health and Human Services for RichmondCC, gave a report on the increasing number of students graduating from the Associate Degree Nursing program. Forty-one students will graduate this May, up from 33 the previous year and more than double from the 19 students who graduated in 2018.

“I am pleased to report that our ADN program continues the upward trend in graduating nurses into the workforce,” she said. “Moving forward, we have 48 ADN students and 14 Practical Nursing students, and we have 118 applicants for the Class of 2022.”

CARES Act

The Board also learned about RichmondCC’s allocation of funds from the federal CARES Act. The College received $1,993,968, at least 50 percent of which must be spent on direct student aid for spring students affected by the campus closure and transition to online learning.