2021 Classes to Be Online

PCC President, Dr. Erika Endrijonas officially announced that both the 2021 Winter Intersession and 2021 Spring semester will be mostly online, with limited face-to-face instruction (primarily labs for nursing students). Making the decision to remain online in Spring 2021 in mid-September may seem a bit premature, but we are making the decision and announcement soon so that students and faculty can prepare. The CSUs (Cal State Universities) have already decided to remain online in Spring 2021 and it is likely the UC system will also remain online. While there is nothing I would love more than seeing all of our students on campus, it still is not safe, and we do not have any indication that a vaccine will be available or widespread enough by the start of Spring to make a different decision at this point in time.

Regarding sports, Dr. Endrijonas made the following statement...

I know many of you are wondering about what will happen with Athletics given that we have made this decision. Back in July, the California Community College Athletic Association Board, which I chair, decided to move all Fall sports to Spring 2021. The COVID Work Group of the CCCAA developed a schedule that has early Spring and late Spring competition seasons for all sports. This COVID Work Group will meet on September 23rd and September 29th to formulate a recommendation regarding Athletics for the CCCAA Board to consider in October or, at the latest, at its November 6th Board meeting. At the same time, CCCAA Interim Executive Director Jennifer Cardone and I met with Lande Ajose in Governor Newsom’s office yesterday to discuss their Higher Education guidance related to athletics. A key point we made was that their guidelines were developed with the NCAA in mind, not with the CCCAA in mind. We requested a review of the guidelines, especially as it relates to practice/workouts and COVID testing. In short, I don’t have an answer, but folks are working on what the plan will be for athletics in Spring 2021. Stay tuned!

And finally, with regards to replacing PCC’s science building...

I will end with good news: the Sarafian building has cleared its final hurdle in the Department of Finance and the Chancellor’s Office, which means we will put the construction management team in place shortly to start taking the Sarafian building down. We can’t implode the building for a variety of reasons, so it’s going to be dismantled floor-by-floor. The only upside to not having students on campus for the remainder of the year is that this very messy, truck-intensive job will not have to work around lots of students walking by.