![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_0462.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cThat\u2019s not an easy thing to think about,\u201d she says. \u201cWorking with completely unknowns is so difficult for people. All we can do as a college system is listen to what\u2019s happening, particularly from our provincial health officer [Bonnie Henry], and just move forward as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some courses are easier to deliver online than others. The trades, for example, require hands-on learning; Bell says the college will most likely have to suspend new intakes of trades students until further notice and it is focusing on getting the current cohort of trades students through their program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deans and faculty are looking at what can be put online [and] what can\u2019t be,\u201d says Bell. \u201cTrades are impossible to do without having hands on\u2014that\u2019s part of being an apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some courses, like Biology, it\u2019s a combination of both theory and hands-on work. The theory can be done online, but the labs are harder to do remotely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a work in progress, and I know people really want to have the answers to their questions soon, so we\u2019re trying to do this work for next semester this week,\u201d says Bell. \u201cWe\u2019ll have answers coming up at the end of this week, beginning of next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell says the college is tackling matters based on urgency. After everyone has a good sense of spring and summer, matters such as postponing or cancelling graduation ceremonies will be addressed.<\/p>\n
Bell says one of the biggest concerns is how students are coping financially if they\u2019ve lost work. The college is now using money raised in its Erasing Barriers campaign to provide immediate emergency funds to students in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a large bursary for tuition or housing,\u201d says Bell. \u201cIt\u2019s more [that] any money we have coming in, we want to be distributing it out as quickly as we can, probably in different ways than we have in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
(On Wednesday, March 25, after this interview was conducted, the college announced that students can contact Financial Aid for the Erasing Barriers $200 emergency student bursary if they\u2019re experiencing financial hardships as a result of COVID-19).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got money coming in, and we did have some funds put away,\u201d says Bell.<\/p>\n
As far as tuition for courses, or parts of courses, that need to be held on campus or in the community, Bell says that is still being worked through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s being worked on every day right now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Individual courses were largely left to instructors to modify, simply because of time restrictions, but instructors were required to submit their plans to the chair of their department for approval. Bell says she is really impressed with how the instructors took that on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re known for, just the quality of instruction,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen we went into this, we left that up to their professional judgment… Faculty were not given a whole lot of lead time to flip their whole delivery method, so I have to say, I\u2019m incredibly thankful and incredibly impressed.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, March 25, Bell had a telephone meeting with union representatives and the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) to discuss various concerns; she says it\u2019s important to hear from different groups within the college, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmployee groups are also concerned right now,\u201d says Bell. \u201cEverybody\u2019s working and getting paid, but people are concerned for the future, and we don\u2019t know what the future\u2019s going to look like as a province moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell says the province requires the college to remain open, even if that means offering classes online instead of on campus, and that any changes around that would come from Henry. For now, Bell says, everyone is concerned about the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get through this,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true. Probably, we\u2019ll learn something from it, and we\u2019ll be stronger from going through this. I just hope that people can stay healthy and take care of one anther.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Camosun College continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, president Sherri Bell says that the safety and well-being of students and employees is first and foremost, adding that this is a stressful time for everyone and that the future is uncertain. \u201cIt\u2019s a time that we\u2019ll never go through again, hopefully, in our lifetime,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19278,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19277\/revisions\/19278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}