As many of you are aware, the RCCD Board of Trustees met last evening in order to determine how to proceed in the wake of the order from Riverside County Public Health Officer Cameron Kaiser's order to close all schools in Riverside County until April 3. There was a prolonged discussion between the Board, Chancellor Isaac, and various stakeholder groups about the plans going forward. Here is an update as those plans regard faculty.
All face-to-face instruction is cancelled until further notice. Because of the ordered closures, no instruction will be held on the college campuses. This includes lecture and lab instruction. Students and faculty are being asked not to come to the colleges or district office. Only essential personnel will be working on the college campuses and in the district office until further notice. Beginning tomorrow, all faculty members should refrain from coming to the college campuses or district office. If you have belongings that you need to retrieve, please get them today, if possible. If not, please contact your chair or dean to make arrangements to gain access to your belongings as soon as possible.
If you are a faculty member who has an essential function at a college that requires you to periodically visit one of the college facilities – for example, to take care of laboratory animals – please reach out to your academic senate president so that they can pass this information on to your college president.
Instruction will continue to move to the online environment. The goal is to have all possible instruction moved into the online environment by March 23. This gives faculty who need training the ability to continue to familiarize themselves with Canvas, Zoom, and other software and to talk with one another, provide feedback, and work to make all necessary adjustments. E-mail regarding training has been sent from the District Office and is being sent by specific divisions and departments from the colleges. Please be on the lookout for messages regarding training.
This also gives students the ability to address this change, as well as the changes all the decisions being made in response to COVID-19, and to give us feedback on what they need to be successful in the online environment. Online classes that have been operative since the beginning of the semester, or have been recently brought online, will continue as scheduled.
Provisions are being made to address committees and other non-academic functions. We realize that the ongoing business of the colleges, such as Improvement of Instruction, strategic planning, and other matters are being disrupted by the decision to close. To address this, the colleges and District Office will be working to find the most appropriate means to bring people together to make decisions for the institution, most obviously through remote meeting platforms. Obviously, this situation is fluid, but you will be contacted by the appropriate source (e.g. VC Rebeccah Goldware, the appropriate college president or administrator, faculty leaders) as necessary.
The Board will be meeting on Tuesday evening, which may made available online. Please watch the District website for updates on this. We also will update you regarding any changes. For now, please keep yourselves and your families safe, work with your students to best address the changes, and keep us posted as necessary. We are all in this together, and we will get through this together.