By Fred Ortlip
The Scene staff
St. Louis Community College Chancellor Jeff Pittman updated about 300 faculty and staff members on Friday with a wide-ranging, nearly 30-minute PowerPoint presentation on how the college is responding to COVID-19, the disease that has wreaked havoc on people and economies around the world.
The presentation was billed as a “virtual town hall meeting” and delivered via Zoom. People had been invited to submit questions in advance.
Pittman discussed the STLCC budget, how students are being supported, the impact on enrollment, the donation of college medical supplies to area hospitals and an offer of a free summer class to new and returning students. And he read a letter from a Florissant Valley nursing student who has recovered after being infected by the coronavirus.
“Many of (the unemployed) are probably our students who are having a difficult time right now and struggling,” Pittman said. “So the college is here. We’re in a perfect position. It’s about access. It’s about helping the St. Louis region. I know we’re able to do that. But it’s certainly for us a time of courage and faith. I want you to keep that in mind as we go forward.”
The Scene submitted questions in advance, asking how many in the STLCC community were known to have been infected by the coronavirus and whether there had been any hospitalizations or deaths, but the chancellor didn’t address that topic.
Pittman encouraged employees to stay in touch and to make “frequent visits” via email, social media and the college website and to follow up with any questions they might have. All on-campus spring classes have been converted to online instruction, and summer semester will follow the same course.
The college has set up a special WC withdrawal code (stands for Withdrawal – Community Crisis), giving students the option of re-enrolling in courses within a year at no extra cost. Pittman called the new “take a course on us” opportunity “a tool to encourage new students to start at the college and for continuing students to finish their degree or certificate.”
To help with the transition to an online-learning environment, STLCC has lent out 800 computers, including 330 to students, and provided free Wi-Fi sources for those in need. It also donated its personal protective equipment and ventilators to area hospitals to use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve learned that often times that things we give come back to us tenfold,” Pittman said. “So the hospitals are incredibly thankful for all the work.”
The chancellor told faculty and staff that the college has raised $11 million of the $20 million goal in its current fundraising campaign, including $100,000 from Bank of America for a patient care technician program.
“Those are vitally needed workers in our community, particularly in this town,” he said. “And we’re trying to work to see how we can get students into the program and follow all the requirements set forth by our government so we can make sure that if any training we do would be safe for the students and certainly be following all the social-distancing guidelines.”
Pittman thanked Marilyn Bush, a member of the STLCC Foundation board and St. Louis market president of Bank of America, for the gift.
The chancellor noted that a half-dozen STLCC response teams are addressing various challenges that have arisen from the pandemic, including employee and student engagement, IT issues, federal CARES Act fund distribution and other communications.
To address the spike in area unemployment, the college is checking its inventory of programs to see if some can be assembled on a short-term basis to allow people to find work. “At the same time, whatever training they would take would stack toward their degree or certificate,” Pittman said.
State revenue has plummeted during the pandemic, leading Gov. Mike Parson to withhold $180,000 million for higher education, including $3.5 million for STLCC.
The federal CARES Act is providing $14 billion to the state ($6.28 billion released last week). That translates to $197 million for Missouri schools, including $8.27 million for STLCC, $4.4 million of which will go to student grants. The college is waiting for guidelines on how it can use the balance of the $8.27 million, Pittman said.
An additional $54 million will be coming to Missouri through the Governor’s Relief Fund. “That’s up to the governor to determine how that’s going to be distributed,” Pittman said. “Myself and others are engaged in doing what we can to see how we could utilize those funds here in St. Louis to help out folks in our community.”
Pittman also answered the following questions emailed in advance of the town hall meeting:
- On the impact of the recession on enrollment: The chancellor expects an initial dip, then an increase as effects of the pandemic begin to ease. “We’re seeing a huge influx of the unemployed. Simultaneously, we have several sectors, such as IT and health care, that have huge vacancies. … We’re really the conduit and set in the best place to bring students who are unemployed in depending on how many of them will not get to go back to work as a result of the pandemic and get them prepared for other occupations.”
- More details on the relief money: Half of the $8.27 million received will go directly to students “to assist with things such as child care, with food, with housing. We’ll be making all this money available soon, and Regina Blackshear’s (CARES Act) team is putting that together.”
- On the impact on STLCC of a potential enrollment collapse at four-year universities because of the coronavirus: “We may get a big influx of students this fall because their universities don’t want them on their campus or in their dorms. We need to be prepared for that, and we could see an uptick in enrollment in the fall or more than likely in the spring.”
- On recruitment while campuses are closed: STLCC is continuing to recruit among local high schools by staying in touch with their representatives and stressing opportunities, such the offer of a free summer class.
Pittman read a letter from Richelle Herron, a nursing student on the Florissant Valley campus who was among the first in the STLCC community to be infected by COVID-19. She has since recovered.
“My heart overflows with gratitude and pride as I read the messages and prayers that have been offered in the recent passing of my grandmother, hospitalization of my mother and recovery of my husband and I,” she wrote. “I have always been proud to be a part of the nursing program here at St. Louis Community College Flo Valley. But the heart and soul of any program’s organization is its people, and your hearts are as genuine as they come.”
Herron added in the letter: “Having been a COVID-19 patient, experiencing the fear of unknown, the psychological toll of isolation and the pain of loss from my family from this pandemic, I know that the health care professionals, but mainly the nurses that take care of me and my family, made and are continuing to make a difference.”