Mary Rees: Good morning, We're gonna wait a minute for participants to come join us so just a big welcome to all of you.
Good morning and thank you for attending the Moorpark College Student Update for April.
This student update webinar is being recorded. This will allow others to review the information provided. A transcript will be available following this meeting and we will post the transcript on the Moorpark College website, and on the ASMC website.
All audio and video have been disabled. Questions may be asked through the Q&A section feature on the bottom.
Please ask your questions in this area.
If you click on the gallery view up at the top of your screen, that will allow you to see the interpreter for the webinar.
Also on the bottom of the screen, there's a box that is labeled CC that is for closed captioning. If you click that, that will make closed captioning available. So again, gallery view at the top will allow you to to see the interpreter.
A CC box at the bottom will allow closed captioning.
The session will last about an hour,
and to begin maybe look quickly at the agenda
that we're going to be covering this morning.
We're first going to hear from Kris Hotchkiss the ASMC President, President Sokenu, and then we'll go through some topics that had been selected by the students.
Looking at Emergency Funds, Finals, Summer and Fall Schedule, Student Life, and then we'll come back and address some of your questions.
Please add your questions as you're going through. We've got a whole panel of experts that will be glad to answer your questions as we go through the webinar.
Kris, Good morning.
Kris Hotchkiss, ASMC President: Good morning. Thank you, Mary.
So,
I just want to thank our faculty, staff and administration for working so hard and diligently to make the transition to online instruction possible.
I hope that you're all safe and healthy, as well as able to work work well for your online courses. ASMC knows how important it is to our personal and mental well-being to stay connected during this time.
As a result, we have decided to move some of our events online to keep our students engaged. I recommend following us on Instagram @a.s.m.c
to keep up to date with the events that will be hosting. We have elections for the next ASMC Board coming up, and we have about 22 excellent candidates that are looking forward to representing
Moorpark College students next year. Please be sure to log into your portal next Tuesday, April 21 through Wednesday, April 22 until 8pm to cast your vote.
Winners will be announced through our story on Instagram. We will be posting short videos on our Instagram story, answering questions about what we're doing while we're quarantined to stay busy,
healthy, and on top of our online courses and what student services we still use. Please follow us and perhaps make a video like ours
to be featured on our story. When things feel uncertain or up in the air, they do during this pandemic, it can be hard to know who to turn to when you have a concern.
ASMC is here to be the voice for student issues and opinions so if you have any issues that you want us to advocate for, please email me at ASMCPresident@vcccd.edu or anyone on the Board, so we can bring up issues where it would be advantageous.
An example of something that we could advocate for would be student worker paid during this time with remote work
so that they still have an income. So please send ASMC anything that you would want to advocate for, and we will work diligently to find a way to do it.
We urge you to reach out and use Student Services that are still available on campus if you need help with anything,
and these can be found under the Services for Students tab on the Moorpark College website. You can visit any of the services' tabs
to find out how you can best contact them, whether it be by phone or email. Thank you. And now I would like to turn it over to Moorpark College President, Dr. Julius Sokenu.
Dr. Julius Sokenu: Thank you, Kris.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, we
Appreciate the time that you're sharing with us, and we hope that you will get the most out of this webinar and in a way, reconnect to you if you're not already connected to our campus.
I want to first of all thank Kris and ASMC for all the work that they do on behalf of our students.
And also to thank their the advisor Kristen Robinson, the work that they do and making sure that our students voices are heard, but also the work that they do to facilitate the community that is Moorpark College
I know that for many of you, this has been a time, for like many of us, a time of real uncertainty and as Kris mentioned,
Your well being, but we're also invested in making sure that you're able to meet your academic goals.
Our commitment to you is that we will provide you a safe learning environment and provide you the resources you need to be successful.
Part of doing that is making sure that Moorpark College is available to you online and the resources that you've come to expect
on ground are available to you online. You will hear from quite a few of our leadership team this morning about what they can do for you and what is coming down the pike. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. So I want to start off by talking to our student workers.
We depend on student workers to support the work that we do at Moorpark College. there is a commitment to make sure that our student workers are paid through the rest of the Spring semester.
We are also making sure that for student workers who need to be reassigned because the area
of employment is either gone fully online and their work has been in person, we've reassigned them. So some of you who are listening to this may have been working in a division office and you're now helping to call students who are potential
Raiders who approached potential new Moorpark college students. You're calling them and making sure that they get enough information about Moorpark College. Some of you were working
in a division office and, you're now currently helping in the library. So again, this is an opportunity to make sure that we keep all our students employed. That is a commitment. It is a commitment that we
Meet that initial contract that we made with you. It is also important that for students who are receiving federal work study or students who are in the EOPS program that by virtue of federal legislation and and also by California
governance standards that your employment is assured and so please, rest assured that Moorpark college is here for you as student workers.
and that we will support you and we will try our very best to reassign you to work environments and provide you the necessary resources to do that work.
Dr. Jennifer Clark our Vice President of Business will be talking to you after I'm done about potential areas for financial assistance so that you can hear from her.
If you have any questions as a student worker please reach out to your supervisor, you can call them or you can email them and they can help you address questions regarding your work status.
We have done our very best to make sure that we've reached out to every single student worker,
but sometimes, the information may not may not be accurate. If you have not heard from your supervisor, please contact them. So student workers are one area. We're also, as you know, looking at commencement.
So for those of you who have done the work and have earned the right to call it to graduate from Moorpark college, we first of all congratulate you on your work.
I know that there been moments of struggle, moments of inspiration, moments of anxiety coupled with moments of joy.
And you've spent all this time and your goal was to walk across that stage at commencement and to show to your family and your friends, your accomplishments. And unfortunately, as a result of the
pandemic you will not be able to do that in person, this May. Graduation was scheduled for May 15.
Unfortunately, we cannot host graduation during the shelter-in-place order from the governor. So we want to recognize that 2020 graduates, and we want to honor those graduates from across the district by providing them a virtual opportunity to celebrate their work.
Graduates can submit a district wide 2020 commencement acknowledge online form. And on that form, you will be able to provide the following information.
Your full name, your primary College, which is the college which you attend on a regular basis, the degree or certificate that you've earned,
if you're transferring to another university, you can tell us where that is. If you're transitioning to the work force, please tell us what you will be doing and even where you might be doing that.
And then you can share with us what inspired you. Do you have a favorite quote, do you have a favorite
Reference or experience from Moorpark College that that will stick with you. We want to hear you, we want to know you, we want to see you, we want to hear from you
and this is an opportunity for us to celebrate your accomplishment here at Moorpark College. We also want to know what motivated you to get a degree in the first place. Was there someone that inspired you? Is there something that makes you connect to Moorpark college?
So you will be able to upload a photo, to have it featured on our college graduation web page and our graduates will also be celebrated through a social media platform to bring additional attention to this occasion. So we will be
highlighting particular students on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any social media that we see fit. We want to make sure that folks know that you've been successful and that you've accomplished and gotten to the
honorable
Status of being a Moorpark College Graduate. On that webpage, we will try as best as possible to imitate what you would have experienced at
In person on campus commencement. So you will have the the Chair of our Board of Trustees will have a message to you, the Chancellor will have a message to you,
I will have a message to you, Kris as the Associated Student President will also have a message for you, the Student Trustee who represents all
Ventura County Community College Students on the Board of Trustees will have a message for you, and our Academic Senate and Classified Senate Presidents will also have messages for you.
It's important that we try and get the word out, the information out, on this virtual celebration of your success. Please, when you get the email from the College and from the college districts, please make sure that you
not only participate in this, but that you participate enthusiastically and you share with your friends and with your colleagues, so that they can be a part of this. You have done a great job, you are about to become a college graduate, we want to be able to celebrate you in that way.
Okay, so please do stay tuned for more information. And I know that for some of you, you've apply for scholarships and you're wondering what's happening with the scholarships
The applications for the scholarships were due, they've been reviewed and the reviewers will be assessing them and you will be notified by the end of April
which scholarships you've been awarded
There was supposed to be a scholarship ceremony on the second of May, as you know, because of the
State's stay at home order, we've canceled that event, but we will be sending you your scholarship check as well as your certificate so that you will receive in the mail. You may want to make sure that we have the appropriate mailing address for both of those.
What is important, again, is that we keep the life of the college going. So how do we keep the life of the college going, how do we support our students in that work?
We make sure that they have the resources to do so. I will now turn you turn it over to our Vice President of Business. Dr. Jennifer Clark.
Dr. Jennifer Clark: Good morning raiders. I'm very excited to be here to have this opportunity to speak to you directly. I don't often get
out of my office. I walk on campus a lot and I see a lot of you, but I don't have an opportunity to speak to you like this. So I for one am very, very excited.
I'm so glad that you are able to join us this morning, a lot of great information is going to be shared and I'm glad that you're able to be here to to hear it.
So in particular, what I wanted to clarify and address to you this morning is emergency funds and financial aid those kinds of questions that you may have. So just to clarify, we've had recently some different types of emergency fund grants that have been available.
And the first kind of was available in January of this year, 2020, our emergency fund grant, and those were awarded very small dollar amounts but based on need. It was a very simple application, a one pager where you
Requested funds for, you know, whatever it was and then those dollar amounts were or those
awards were granted, but again, very, very small dollar amounts. Well shortly after that, in March when COVID-19 hit, we expanded that to more emergency grants from a variety of funding sources, but the
application process or the way that those funds are accessed is exactly the same way that the emergency fund Grant was available to you in January. So around March 23, these other grants became available. Again the same process was followed the same one page
application and those though in March, we were specifically looking at living expenses for students to help you all that may need help with your living expenses.
That was when we developed our sort of laptop loaning program. Some of you are applying
for funds to be able to buy your own laptops. That takes time to get the funds, to be able to buy the laptop, to receive the laptop, all of that, that takes time
But right now, you have an immediate need, you need a laptop today because you have courses that you're taking today. So we have laptops available
on our campus that we've been working, you know, feverishly to get out to as many of you as possible that need them that need a loaner in the in the interim, and they're still available. We're still loaning them out.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that you may have heard that there's federal legislation that's been passed recently for us at Moorpark College. You may have heard the CARES Act is what people are are talking about, for the most part.
There's quite a bit of money that's going to be available for emergency expenses for Moorpark College students
specifically related to expenses as a result of COVID-19
So these cover all kinds of emergency expenses that you may have had due to the pandemic: food, housing, course material, technology, health-care, childcare a whole host of
expenses that you might be facing again as a result of the pandemic. So, this is
the most important slide for me and this is how you apply. So, okay, we have these funds, we have these emergency grants, and the CARES Act. Well, what do I do, how do I apply for these funds.
Well, you need to be currently enrolled. So if you are a Spring semester enrolled Moorpark College student, you are eligible.
You have to have a FAFSA, or a California Dream Act application on file. Many of you do. If you don't, you can
file for one at any time available on the Student Services website under financial aid, contact the financial aid office, they will help you through it.
They do this all the time. So again, if you don't have a FAFSA, or a California Dream Act application on file, you can do that today.
The Moorpark College Financial Aid office website link is below. Again, if you just go to Moorpark College and there
on the top, there are a few buttons. If you go to Student Services,
you'll see a list or a menu down the side. Click on Financial Aid and there's a massive button that you cannot miss when you go to the Financial Aid website. Follow those links, there's a
big link that says Emergency Fund Grant form, a button right on the top of that Financial Aid website, click there
and you'll see the one page Emergency Fund Grant form that you must fill out to be eligible for any of these funding sources that I've just mentioned. So after you fill out that application, that one pager,
email it to Financial Aid, MCFA@vcccd.edu that's right here on the slide. That is where you email that one page fund grant application.
Really, really, really important, along with that application, you must also include supporting documentation for what it is you're asking for. For example,
If you're asking for care sack money because you lost your job, you lost wages,
supporting Documentation would be something: an email or something that you receive from your employer, saying that you've been laid off.
Anything like that suffices as supporting documentation. If you don't, we've had a lot of applications that have been supported without any supporting documentation.
That just slows the process down. You can imagine the volume of applications that Financial Aid is getting so
they will reach out to you and ask you for clarification or supporting documentation. But again, it slows the process down
So as much of that supporting documentation that you can include in your initial email with that Emergency Fund Grant application filled out the better the sooner, everything will process and you can receive assistance.
Again, we're receiving a very high volume of applications. So if you haven't heard, for a better part of a week, from anyone in Financial Aid, then you need to follow up with the office. Again, you can reach them by email.
phone. Their phone number is exactly the same as it's always been, (805) 378-1462, just reach out, follow up, and someone will get back to you.
I believe that was all I was going to address this morning. So I'm going to turn it over to your Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary Reese for the Student Update.
Mary: Thank you, Jennifer and thank you all for joining in. We've got a really nice group of students that are here this morning, looking at the number of participants,
and there's a lot of great questions coming in that we're trying to answer so keep your questions coming in and if we can answer them, we will. Otherwise they will be answered and posted on the ASMC website and the college's website.
The topics that Jennifer talked talked about and that we will be going through our topics that were presented to Kris by other students so they were areas that the students were looking to get additional input on.
One of the first questions is finals. So we're kind of in when we come back from spring break, we're always on the there's about a month left of classes.
There's a lot of classwork and time to be completed and then it's time for Finals. Finals will be offered in the time block as defined in the final schedule.
We have here it shows you where the final schedule is. I know it sometimes can be a hard thing to find out, and to determine when your finals are being offered.
If you go to the College website, you'll see under "Apply and Enroll" you've got "Academic Calendar" and under "Academic Calendar," you've got the "Final Exam Schedule." You go to that and you'll see when your particular class when the final is to be offered. The finals will be offered online.
So the finals are offered online, in the time slots as defined in the Final Exam Schedule.
There was a question that was provided to Kris that asked any suggestions for studying. I think that is one of the hardest questions to ask because your life is so complicated.
Kids are home, the situation where you're trying to study in is a different one, you've got a lot of distractions, you're probably sharing the computer, hopefully you have a computer and internet access.
If you don't, those are areas that we want to try to see if we can help you with,
but we understand that you might be sharing with other people in your house, with the kids, with your parents, with whomever and things will be different for you. It's going to be a much harder time to,
particularly with all the distractions going on, to have the focus that it requires in order to do well on your classes.
One of the things to remember is that when you were taking your classes the understanding was that you've got the amount of time you spend in class and then for every hour in class, you have about two hours of studying at home
or in the library, which you don't have, or in the coffee shop, which you don't have.
All of the resources that you got so comfortable with, you don't have there with you now. So you had about two hours to every one hour that you were in class. Now that time in class is at home or in front of your computer,
that two extra hours is still required. So you're in home time in front of your computer doesn't replace the studying hours so
it means that you've got that in home time. Plus, you now have to have that two extra hours for every hour that you've got your class time. So it's really a difficult time to re-set up your schedule,
and try to look at it as to this is replacing my class time and then I've got to schedule in my study time,
and figure out a place, or a location, or a mindset where I can have the focus in order to do well on my classes.
There are a lot of groups, a lot of the State Chancellor's website. I think it might be good here for us.
I know some of the different disciplines have Zoom times and study times where students can get together and have group study
like help each other with the problems or with talking through it and all of that. So reach out within your classrooms and see if you can set up these support groups,
and so that you can have your study time just like you used to before,
so that you can meet with your colleagues to help you move through the material because this is what you're wanting to do. This is helping you meet your educational goals,
Accomplishing and completing this material so that you can move on to accomplish your particular individual educational goals.
So after this semester than our next issue deals with Summer schedule. There are a lot of questions about the Summer schedule, and I know that registration begins for the first groups next week.
We highly encourage you to look into the Summer schedule and the Fall schedule and see what courses are going to be needed to help you
Keep on schedule. Keep on your path keep moving forward on your educational goals. Don't let COVID-19
distract you from what you want to do and meeting your particular goals. The Summer, as you've heard is online. Our state Chancellor has told us very clearly that Summer is online. There are a few very, very few exceptions
for courses that are extremely hard to transition. Particular courses such as for your EATM within the zoo.
We need to keep that moving forward, helping support the animals, feed the animals, take care of them, and also within our allied health.
The Nursing Program, EMT, and Rad Tech. We are going to be working very hard to do try to figure out how best to keep those
Allied Health Programs meet moving forward. For all of the other courses, we're going to be providing these online either asynchronous,
or synchronous. Many of you I'm hearing are very happy with the idea of the synchronous classes, you know the time and the date
that those are going to meet. Others are just the usual online, the asynchronous where you can log in at whatever time fits your particular needs. So there's going to be both type of courses offered over the summer.
For the courses that are hard to transition. If things change and there is a change in the stay-at-home orders, we will look to see what can be added to these synchronous courses. There are courses such as Kinesiology the
ICA's, which would be our sports, that are currently set up as synchronous online courses. If the stay-home order is
Removed to a certain degree, we will look to see for those particular courses only what can be added back in
to provide for example the football class. Something like that to see what can be added. So basically Summer semester is going to be online,
with either a synchronous or asynchronous. For the hard to transition courses, we're going to provide
updates within reaching out to those individual students in those courses to make any modifications that are allowed
by the Ventura County Public Health and the state stay-home orders. So if you are in those hard courses you probably are already aware of it. We will reach out to you all individually,
within those courses that you've already signed up for.
There's a lot of questions coming up about some of the lab courses for Summer. The lab courses for Summer at this time are online.
Some of the courses where we have problems moving them to online will be taking those lab courses and offering them in Fall.
I know several of you were concerned looking for General Chemistry, a BIOL 2A
offered in the summer. In order to meet the outcomes define for those courses and to provide you with the background information and the competencies that you need to move on within your discipline. The faculty believe that it is best to offer those on ground in the Fall.
The Fall schedule is going to be a mixture of online hybrid courses and on ground.
The lab courses, whether they're in the Sciences, in the Health Area, in the Arts, in the Kinesiology, the ICA, in the Dance and Music; any of the lab courses, we're going to be offering, unless it was previously just determined as online, we'll be offering those on ground.
On other areas, disciplines that have more flexibility and are easier to transition to online, we're going to try to provide a lot of online options for you.
Or for courses where we can offer a mixture of online and on ground we're going to try to offer that for you, as hybrids, so that many of the lectures can be online.
And the hybrids would be an on ground for the lab or for the groups, getting together to have interactions as what we've offered in the past for hybrid courses.
We feel the hybrids offer a very nice mixed option for students and helping students succeed because our goal is to provide pedagogy.
Online hybrid and on ground that will help students succeed learning the material that they need in order to meet their educational outcomes.
We also want to build in safety measures. There was several questions that were students were asking
how if when we do come back to school, when we do have the options to offer on ground, how will we be sure
That safety is a high concern to the college? It is a high concern to the college. We will follow social distancing,
we will follow what is defined for us by the Ventura County Public Health, and by our local and state government. As far as making this state of
a safe environment as possible for our students. We all know that there is a chance that things will come back, that in the flu seasons that
We know we live with, we've had fires. We know things happen. We want to have options for students. So if something like this happens again,
we know how to move to an online situation. So that is the reason for our higher focus on more onlines and more hybrids in the Fall, so that if we do have a situation in the Fall,
where during flu season or whatever happens that we need to move into more online classes. So again, we will have our courses situated so that we can be responsive
and allow you a smoother transition. We understand that this was not an easy task, not for the faculty nor for the staff here on the campus
and I want to assure you that the faculty and the staff are working very hard to try to help you meet your educational goals,
and some of it is not ideal. Some of it is a process. We're working through how to do it better. We definitely want to hear from you on what works for you and what doesn't, so that we can continue to improve on how we provide educational opportunities for you.
Okay, next would be a doctor, Amanuel Gebru Vice President of Student Support
Dr. Amanuel Gebru: Thank you, Mary.
So I want to first thank for students, for joining us today and also
thank you for, still continuing your education and pushing through some difficult time. I'm hoping that you and your family have safe out there and
we're here to support you. We believe in our students. We miss seeing you on campus, but hopefully once this thing goes down or you know transition back smoothly to supporting you as you come back on campus.
So I just want to start out by saying, we really want to support you, but at the same time
we want you to know where all the resources are, and I want you to go to our website and when you go on our website and on front page of the website
you will see the student help button. That is where all the services are. So when we provide you this this PowerPoint later on,
You'll be able to click on the links and be able to access all the services from Tutoring, from Counseling, from Financial Aid,
Admissions and Records. Every support service that we used to have on campus for you is now online.
So if you need any support, if you need to make an appointment, if you need to talk to someone in terms of, you know, getting the resources you need to be successful,
Start with the help button. From there you can access every support that we used to go to on campus. They all have been transitioned to fully online. So go to the Help button and we'll go from there.
Jennifer earlier our Vice President talked about Financial Aid and Support Services, just want to reiterate, there's a lot of resources for you in terms of laptop, in terms of resources,
in terms of your struggles financially. We want to make sure you utilize the services that we have and we want you to go to the Financial Aid page,
and get all the services that can help you during these difficult times. I know we're lending laptops, but we're also going to provide resources of financial grants, where you can buy laptops to help you in your education moving forward for the Summer and Fall.
So the other service that we want you to make sure that you're aware of is our food pantry and our food insecurities.
Ruben Castro is on campus. They're open every Tuesday from 1:00 to 3:00 and from 5:00 to 7:00 at the college. They are located behind the bookstore for those of you that are not aware.
We put a map on there. When we post this PowerPoint online, you'll be able to click and find the information. But if you have questions, please call us if you have folks that need resources that may not be aware of this, please let them know the services that we have on campus as well.
In addition to our food pantry. There's other services such as CalFresh,
There's food assistance programs in our local communities such as local banks, there's free summer lunch programs that are available to you.
All these services on our website there's phone numbers that we provided, and when we post this
This PowerPoint you'll be able to click on the links to this information. I know we have about 200 students here today,
but we want you to share this with your other friends, other people in the community that need these resources
because we want them to be aware. I know a lot of you have social media, use your social media to send this information to your friends
that are in classes with you. They may not be aware of these resources. So please utilize the services that are available to you.
Additional services: School Meals, Women and Infant Children WIC programs which we provided the phone number on these are additional resources for you in terms of food or financial support that you may need.
In transitioning, Mary talk about the schedule and classes, Summer and Fall registration begins April 20th that is for special population.
But also when you click on our link, you will see all the dates for all the student population in terms of your registration dates. But I want to also emphasize, please contact our Counseling department.
Making sure that when you when you meet with our Counselors and make appointments they'll provide your details about registration, about classes, about your Ed plan.
If you drop the class or if you're not taking a class this semester, and you want to make it up in the Summer. This is an opportunity for you to go to our counseling web page, make an appointment, call them make an appointment via online.
This is one way for you to communicate some of the challenges that you've had the semester and our counselors are working, you know,
every single day Monday through Friday to help you with all your needs. Also our veterans student population VA has approved
The post 911 GI Bill which will continue to be dispersed in full, to allow support for housing other resources so that you can take your classes online.
And then also any additional questions you may have contact our Veterans Resource Center, the phone number is there. Johnny Conley is the director of that area and he's there to support all of our veterans.
So that's pretty much it in terms of our services, use the student help button and from there
really engage with our campus community in the way you can. We hope to have you back on campus, but in the meantime,
we really want to help via appointments, by phone, by online services and we want to make sure that we're here to support you succeed and excel in your classes. Thank you once again and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Mary: Julius and Kris, there were quite a few questions. I think the first one, maybe would be
One of the students responded that change is scary and hard
Kris and Julius, can you respond to that? I think that kind of sums up everything.
Julius: Exactly, and we appreciate your honesty when you share with us that it is a challenge for us. If you think about it,
we have 1500 sections this semester of courses and to transition 1500 sections,
some of which were already online, but to transfer most of those classes with faculty who themselves may have not taught online before, with students who themselves may have not taken online classes before,
that requires a lot of courage, that requires a lot of innovation, that requires being committed, but it also requires being able to be patient and deal with frustration.
Change is hard. We're all learning together to try and make this work. If you think about it, we are taking resources that will usually delivered on ground and we're transitioning into an online or virtual format.
And with that format, there be changes in the way in which we do business and we're trying our best to respond to what is a very dynamic and rapidly changing situation.
Yes, it is scary and hard. We're here to support you through that and the resources that you've heard from our various Vice Presidents, and the responses that you see on the Q&A tell you that we're here to help you through this difficulty.
Mary: Kris, do you want to respond as well?
Kris: Yeah, sure. So it is definitely super scary switching from all on-ground classes to all online classes. But for me, the most important thing I learned was to find
a method that works for me. There's not a set method that everyone would be able to use on being extremely successful in classes so you have to keep tweaking
and figuring out ways work best for you. Whether it be watching your lecture in the morning and immediately after doing your homework and the exam, or whether it be
doing the lecture, taking your time to go over again and again until it's really in your head that you know the information
and then you can take the test and do the homework and start to do better. So everyone's different and I suggest just finding the best way for yourself to complete your classes.
We will get through this and I hope to see you all on campus again soon, but for now we will have to work hard and work through our frustrations in order to do well for this semester.
Mary: Julius or Jennifer couple of students have asked about when people are allowed back on campus. How will we make sure that we're do social distancing and that it's safe?
Julius: So, as you mentioned earlier, Mary, we will not be allowed back in campus by until Ventura County Public Health
approves us to resume service to the public and to students on campus. So first of all, the Ventura County Public Health must feel assured
and will mandate us at that time or released us at that time to be able to deliver classes on ground. So that's that's the most important thing. The second most important thing is that we will have guidelines
that are presented to us, either by the Governor and the State of California, or from a
Ventura County that define for us what protocols me to put in place so that students learn in a safe and secure environment.
So I want our students to, rest assured, that when they come back to campus. We will have guidelines that have been provided to us by experts that's data tested so that when our students participate in a learning environment, that environment will be safe for them.
We expect that, you know, part of returning to campus will be a phased approach, so that we get a chance to not only pilot things but they will get a chance to do it in such a way that students are not at risk. I didn't know if you want to add any of the detail, Jennifer.
Jennifer: No, Dr. Sokenu you covered it all.
Mary: There were a lot of questions about tutoring.
Whether video tutoring can be provided in math, rather than just visual where tutoring options are available.
If you look on the student help button and push that to find help.
Matt I don't know if you're available to talk about tutoring options as well?
Matt Calfin: Sure Mary I can chime in here. Hello everybody,
just wanted to let you know that we do have tutoring available, just as the math and science center that you go up to the third floor of the library to go to that.
You would also be able to access the writing center as well. So we have Moorpark tutors waiting for you. They're available the same time that the tutoring center is open for you
normally during I'm ground hours. So 9am to 7pm monday through Thursday and then Friday from 8am to noon. So we have Moorpark tutors
Waiting to help you with Statistics or English or for the variety of subjects that we offer. So feel free to access them, you can access right through the teaching learning website it's part of the student services
website as well. So you would just go to that online student services. Click on tutoring and it'll take you to enter a Zoom room that is available. In addition to tutoring that we have available
through our Moorpark College website, and through Moorpark College tutors we also have 24/7 tutoring available via net tutor and that's available through your canvas shell.
So if you have any other questions, feel free to contact our Math and Science center or the Writing Center and the be happy to help you.
Mary: Thank you, Matt. Julius, we didn't talk very much about Excuse Withdrawals or Pass no Pass.
Julius: So we know that for many of our students this is a heavy lift.
We know that for many of our students, they're trying their very best, and they're overwhelmed. But life is happening at the same time.
Part of the change that we put in place and that has been necessitated by this pandemic is that we need to be flexible.
We need to be flexible so that we can help those students continue to be successful, that we don't punish them for situations that are beyond their control.
So the college district , the three colleges in our district in alignment with this California Community College state Chancellor's Office has is providing students an opportunity to
instead of withdrawing,
they can get an EW which is an excuse to withdraw. An excused withdrawal does not impact your GPA.
An excuse withdrawal does not impact your Financial Aid, and excuse withdraw does not impact your athletic eligibility. So it really allows you to reset. It really allows you to sort of stop
and think, and if you needed to just step out, you can ask for and request an excused withdrawal. An excused withdrawal is available
through the end of the semester, and you can choose an excused withdrawal at that point in time.
What this allows you to do is to stay in the class and keep working. And then if it's at a point where you just can't do it any longer, then you take an excused withdrawal.
Now, what I would suggest to you though, is that instead of an excuse withdraw. You think about it and if you do well in the class you're passing and you were passing before the online instruction,
you might want to consider changing your grading from a letter grade to pass no pass. We're also allowed that flexibility so that if you are passing the class and which means you're doing C level work, you get a pass.
If you're not passing the class you get a no pass, but that doesn't impact your grade
as well. It's a pass or a no pass
There is a form that allows you to process this that is available again through our Student Services and through Admissions Records link. What these do is they provide you the opportunity
to make life, to make education, make it happen, make it work for you, at your own pace.
My recommendation to you is that you think about the pass no pass first, before you decide to withdraw.
You also have the option of not having any grading reflected on your transcript. It will be reflect that you took the class, but there won't be a grade associated with it.
Now that has some implications in terms of transfer and then has some implications.
just in terms of being competitive in terms of transfer. So our recommendation to students is you look at the pass no pass
look at the excused withdrawal, and talk to your counselor. If you're in a special program like EOPS or in ACCESS then talk to those professionals.
If you're if you're an athlete that you talk to your coach, talk to athletic athletic counselor and they will help you make that decision. Just don't enter into it alone. That is why we're here for you.
Mary: Thank you. That was very helpful. Will, this information on the EW and pass no pass be available on the website for students to get additional clarity?
Julius: Yes, and if you look through the Q&A I see that our registrar Mr. Dave Anter has been responding to that and providing for students the link so that they can actually go to the form,
and you can see at the Admissions and Records website and if you have a question right now he can actually speak to you. He's online and responding to chat and
To Q and A's.
Mary: Thank you. There was a great question about whether graduates will be allowed to get their regalia packages.
Julius: Well, that's a very good question.
That's a good question. I know that we're giving the tassels for free. So for those of you who are graduating, you will get a tassel that's the 2020 tassel from Moorpark College for free and we're looking at creating a new vendor around that.
where you can actually come on campus in your car, safely, and we will sort of celebrate you we'll have a nice arch of balloons and
and you'll have, you know, the Academic Senate President and you'll have me and whoever else that you know in our masks,
safely cheering you on and congratulating you. The tassels I can say for sure that we will be providing to you for free so you don't have to pay for that.
As far as the regalia my understanding was that we were not going to purchase regalia since they won't be the
In person ceremony, but I know Kristen is on the line and if you have a different response Krist,n If you have any insight of what I have shared, please feel free to do so. She says no regalia sale in terms of her response. So, there is no regalia.
Mary: Okay, thank you. If students don't have Wi-Fi access. Is there any options for them?
Julius: Yes. So we are working on providing Wi-Fi access
On campus, on our parking structure. The top level of the parking structure has some of the best Wi-Fi reception on campus. So our plan beginning next week, is to actually provide the opportunity for students who want to.
They can drive onto campus in the parking lot parking structure one car apart so that there is a social distance of protocols that have been observed and followed and
You will then be able to access WiFi that way. Dr. Gebru could also add to this if
I'm not being as accurate, but we're also looking at purchasing hot spots. We'll look at doing that down the line as part of
The funding that we're getting from the CARES Act, but as of now, the easiest way is to campus and be able to access Wi-Fi that way.
Amanuel: Yes, you've covered it Julius. Just want to add that if you do come on campus to use Wi-Fi,
make sure your computers are charged, or you have some device to charge your computer in your cars. Also just want to remind you that the bathrooms will not be available to you if you do come on campus.
I know these are the things we wish we could have available for you, but at this time, we're not able to. Make sure you have a charged laptop, and you have the ability to go somewhere to utilize the restroom.
Mary: And it would be with with social distancing: staying in your car, all of that, of course.
Amanuel: Yes, absolutely.
Mary: Thank you.
We've had some fabulous questions. We really had a great panel of people answering the questions for people. We'll post these
on a couple of places on the website under the President's office, as well as hopefully we'll be able to, I didn't talk with Kristen, but hopefully Kris, you and Kristen will be able to post it as well on the ASMC website.
Could we look at the last slide? These are some resources for students. Make sure you have them. Shandor if you've not had the opportunity, he
works for our Moorpark Online. He is the person there at the Moorpark Online student help site. So if you click that.
and then you can talk with Shandor. He can provide one on one help for students on how to use the online tools, how to work through some of the software, he's a really fabulous resource.
That little button for the student help takes you to the student services page, which lists a lot of resources: how to schedule your counseling appointments, how to get on the tutoring, there's many resources that are there at the student help.
There's a student online support phone number right there for you as well as the email address.
We have Kris' email address there so that the students can reach out to you with questions that they have as well.
So our attempt is to provide a lot of resource to students. I'm sure that there'll be others that you need so please reach out to these resources and let us know what you do need.
Julius and Kris. Would you be able to give us kind of a last
statement or comment for the group before we close out today?
Julius: Kris, you want to go first?
Kris: Yeah, sure. So I just want to thank everyone for attending this. I really appreciate everyone
coming and listening to all the important things that our Vice Presidents have to say, as well as our President, Julius, and I hope that the transition to online becomes better and I hope to see you all soon, perhaps next Fall. Thank you.
Julius: Thank you so much. Thank you, Kris and ASMC. Thank you to Dr. Gebru to Vice President Reese, to Dr. Clark, to the various staff and administrators and faculty who are
supporting us by responding to your questions. We appreciate every single one of you for the work that you do to help support our students.
To our students, I know it's tough, I know it's a challenge, please hang in there. We are here to support you as everyone has been saying,
but we also ask that you reach out and ask for help. We also ask that you reach out to one another.
You know, we need a community to help guide us through this. And so, reaching out to one another, sharing the information that you've heard today with others.
There are resources available, there there's financial resources available, there's some social emotional resources and support available.
Please use it, please let us know when we are not meeting your needs. I see that a couple of people have post questions about, you know, not hearing back from the instructor, the first questions might be not knowing where to go.
You do know what, if there is a concern that you're having. And you can't get a hold of instructor, there is a department chair, there is a dean,
There are Vice Presidents whom you've seen our faces. There's a college President. We are your resource. We're here for each one of you.
There's an Academic Senate President who's also really working with us and making sure that we meet all the needs of our students. But also, we're all trying to adjust to this.
We are here to help you do this as best as you can. We know you can do it, we believe in you so please let us know what you need and also let us know if this is a this is a good medium of communicating with you. I
will be sending in a weekly basis email messages to students. You can see it on the on the VCCCD alerts page, You can see it on the Moorpark College website,
there at the end of this of this session, this session will be recorded and posted to the President's web page.
Every single week where we do an update for faculty and staff and when we do send emails out to students, those will be also provided through that link so you can keep in touch with us. We wish you the very best. Please stay safe, please be healthy and again, go Raiders!
Mary: Thank you. We'll talk, hopefully see you on campus someday in the near future.