Northeast State Community College will start classes one week earlier this fall, and end the semester by Thanksgiving.
Classes will begin Aug. 17 and end Nov. 24. The College will observe the Labor Day holiday, but there will be no fall break, which is typically two days. The Tennessee Board of Regents approved the compressed semester schedule change.
The decision is designed to protect students and employees from a possible resurgence of coronavirus infections in late fall.
“Our priority is to keep the campus community safe,” said Northeast State President Bethany Bullock. “The change of schedule will reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks for students and employees and hopefully allow for a healthy return to campus for the spring 2021 semester.”
The fall schedule will contain a variety of teaching modalities to include in-person, online and hybrid course offerings.
Any courses that are held in person this fall will include social-distancing and sanitation protocols that will be in effect across all campuses.
A committee has been charged to consider course modality changes and scenarios should COVID-19 outbreaks occur before Thanksgiving.
The College will be sending a washable mask to all students before the fall semester with information about the fall schedule with protocols for campus and classroom access.
College officials have plans in place to increase communication over the summer to students, faculty, and staff about the early start and early end dates.
“We completed a spring semester that required significant changes, and we learned valuable lessons that will serve us well going forward,” Bullock said. “We know our faculty and staff will continue to go above and beyond expectations to serve our students with quality instruction and services.”
Bullock noted that the vast majority of community college students have jobs, and many students have children. She said she believes the early start and early end dates this fall will assure students, their families and their employers that the fall academic term will be completed by Thanksgiving before the cold and flu season.
“High school seniors, adults in the workforce who are returning to school, and continuing college students have been through so much; we want their 2020 holiday season to be a time where they can focus on their health, safety, families, and careers. Finishing early will allow them to do so,” Bullock said. “An additional bonus to the early start/early end this fall is that our winter graduates will have additional time to prepare for next steps in their careers or university transfer plans.”
I am very unhappy. My daughter, a high school senior, has been through the loss of graduation, honors day, annual signing, and saying goodbye to her classmates. We scheduled her senior trip for the very last week before school starts back. We reserved a condo and planned to make her graduation trip as nice as we could after the Covid disrupted everything else. Now school is starting a week early. Two people who were going on this trip are Northeast students. My heart is broken that Covid had stolen something else from my daughter.