August 10, 2020
COVID Reopening Plans for Vermont Tech
Ensuring a safe work and learning environment is the # 1 priority for Vermont Technical College. With an abundance of caution and to mitigate risk for our community this fall, Vermont Tech will deliver our education through a “hybrid” delivery model providing a combination of remote lecture and face-to-face labs and clinical experiences for our students.
We know obtaining practical, applied, hands-on learning opportunities are so important for our students, program learning outcomes and employer expectations. Therefore, all programs will offer lecture/didactic portions through remote delivery. Students will come to campus for periodic weeks throughout the semester, staying in the residence halls on our Williston and Randolph Center campuses if needed, for “low residency” access to face-to-face labs. Nursing programs will also offer remote delivery of lecture with face-to-face access to simulation labs and clinical rotations.
Non-essential employees will be able to remain working from home throughout the semester. Critical student-facing offices and departments will be staffed on a rotating basis to assure staffing in those offices daily.
Face coverings will be mandatory for ALL on campus. Daily health screenings of employees and any commuting students will also be mandatory. Access to campus restricted to one entrance with access to buildings disabled until all have had the necessary daily screening.
A brief synopsis of what this means is:
- Only out-of-state students, those with special housing needs, those will challenged home learning environments due to lack of internet access, or other conditions will be given the opportunity to live in the residence halls all semester long; These students will apply for residency through the Student Affairs office (be on the lookout for a separate email about this).
- Dental Hygiene and Professional Pilot students will also be allowed to be in the residence hall in Williston during the semester to provide access to critical clinic and flight time.
- Most students will return for up to three on-campus weeks during the semester for labs and experiential learning. You will be given the opportunity to stay in the residence halls in a hotel-like model or to commute. Students are expected to pack for one week then return home not leaving any belongings in the residence halls enabling us to sanitize the room for the next group of students.
This plan provides numerous benefits to our students:
- All lectures will be online, so if students have health concerns for themselves or family member with health concerns will have reduced risk.
- Most labs will be in person to provide the hands-on experience our programs are known for. Labs will require masks, social distancing, and active hand sanitizing as well as equipment sanitizing. All to minimize the risk.
- We preserve an on-campus experience for those of you who need it all semester long with required testing prior to arrival and 7 days after if you are remaining on campus for the duration of the semester.
- We will be providing hotel-like model housing for the week of labs but students may also choose to commute to these labs. Students coming for one week residency will be required to obtain a COVID-19 test prior to arrival.
- This will create a safer campus by reducing the residential student population, de-densifying the campus, and reducing commuting.
Next steps for:
Students
We hosted a virtual Town Hall for students on Friday, July 17. If you were unable to attend the meeting, please watch the video below. Additional questions can be sent directly to studentaffairs@vtc.edu.
Over the next few days many of you will be hearing from various folks on campus with important information about Residence Life, athletics, our social distancing protocols, etc.
We are currently working to revise the fall course schedule and will post it on our website in the near future. Once this schedule has been released, you will be able to add/drop courses to better suit your situation.
MOVE-IN DATES:
- August 12 – Move-in day for out-of-state students coming from high risk counties (new and returning). If your county is listed as red or yellow on this map it is considered a high risk county.
- August 22 – Move-in day for new Vermont and out-of-state students coming from low risk counties students.
- August 23 – Move-in day for returning Vermont out-of-state students coming from low risk counties students.
- August 24 – First day of classes.
Employees
Anyone coming to campus must undergo daily screenings when arriving on campus. More details of this process will be coming in the next week or more.
Masks will be required when in areas where others could be present, active hand and surface sanitizing will be required.
Important
Thank you very much for your immense patience and understanding as we all endeavor to cope with the health situation and provide students with the first-rate, hands-on, education you deserve. We are committed to making the campuses at Vermont Tech as safe as possible while following the Governor’s Mandatory Guidance as well as the evolving guidelines issued by the CDC. However, there are NO guarantees for complete safety. It is only through taking care of each other, and respecting the NEED to take care of each other will we be successful in ensuring a healthy semester for our community. We ALL need to take very seriously the required precautions. We are Vermont Tech Stronger and we can do this!
