By Grace Rodriguez
A select number of classes will be set to return to East Los Angeles College for the Fall 2021. Dr. Marcellino Morales, head of ELAC’s Comeback Committee, is among other faculty who are currently working on bringing back essential classes.
However as of today it is not certain which classes will come back. One thing is certain, psychology classes have been confirmed to remain online for Fall 2021.
While the Academic Senate has not yet made an official statement, COVID-19 trends are pointing towards online classes for most majors.
The biggest contributing factor keeping people indoors and online is the fact that Los Angeles County remained in the “widespread purple tier,” meaning the positivity rate for COVID-19 is over 8%.
Different departments have been given crumbs of information about whether they will be going back into regularly scheduled in-person classes.
According to Theater Arts Department Chair, Lisa H. Stone, the department made a request for a limited return for two classes but have not been given permission to return to in-person instruction. Sherrie L. Davey of the Psychology Department reports that they have been advised to schedule all of their courses online.
At this moment, it is difficult to have any concrete evidence of which classes will be returning to campus in the Fall.
The last formal public address regarding the pandemic was made on November 17, on ELAC’s official website.
In the announcement to students, ELAC directly quoted both the LA County Public Health Department and the LA Times and implied that since COVID-19 cases were steadily on the rise, the school schedule would remain exclusively online.Since November 2020, not much has changed in Los Angeles.According to an article posted by ABC 7 on March 8, numbers slowly went down leading Los Angeles to be in the red tier.
Morales is tackling this topic head-on. “The college is charging ahead and working to follow and interpret required governmental guidelines for reopening. As well as provide innovative recommendations for ELAC moving forward and back to our campuses after the pandemic as safely as possible,” Morales said.
Hopes remain high among staff and students who are eager to return to their regularly scheduled programs.
Students are eager to know when their school leaders are to make official public statements pertaining to the start of in-person classes for everyone, while news spreads here and there.
As of March 22, close to 20% of the US population has been given the first dose of the vaccine. However, only about 9.1% of Californians have been administered the vaccine.
Perhaps the ‘slow but steady’ distribution of the vaccine will help create a sense of security for leaders to allow all ELAC students back on campus in the near future.
Given that all teachers were already made eligible to get the vaccine as of March 2, the foundation seems to be in place to return to in-person classes very soon.
Making an official public statement on this matter remains at the top of school leaders’ lists.