All nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District will hold classes remotely for the upcoming summer session as an emergency measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced Friday.
The spring 2020 classes that are currently underway will also continue on remote platforms for the remainder of the semester until June 8, district Chancellor Francisco C. Rodriguez said. This affects 150,000 students and personnel, according to the district.
The summer session, beginning June 15, will be conducted remotely, as will student support services and most of the district’s business operations.
The colleges that are affected include Los Angeles City College, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, Los Angeles Valley College and West Los Angeles College.
The transition also includes the district’s office in downtown Los Angeles, its Van de Kamp Innovation Center in L.A. and the South Gate Campus of East Los Angeles College.
Faculty and staff will continue to ensure effective remote learning and teaching, student support services, and administrative and business services for students and employees, Rodriguez said in a statement.
The district began transitioning in-person classes to remote learning platforms on March 15.
Professional development training for more than 2,000 faculty and 2,000 staff was also moved to remote instruction on March 30, the district said.
The district said less than 5% of its classes could not be transformed into remote instruction, and another 4% couldn’t be completed without in-person instruction — including theater stage production, lab work and nursing classes. Those classes were postponed through the end of the spring semester, and no decision has been made on their status for the summer session.
“We are working with faculty and staff to develop a plan for returning these important classes as soon as possible to the colleges in a safe learning environment,” Rodriguez said. “We know these classes are an important part of the education goals for many of our students.”
The district also announced that it would lift restrictions on the number of courses that students can take for pass/no pass credit, and said such courses would not count towards the maximum number allowed. All classes can now be either as graded or as pass/no pass.
The California Community College Chancellor’s Office issued an executive Order on March 27, waiving timelines and other restrictions related to students’ abilities to request pass/no pass as a grading option.
For more information, visit the district’s coronavirus response page.