Chancellors Report 2020.Pdf
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ASU Mid-South and the Teible, Hoible, No Gd, Very Bad Year And How Great It Was Year that must not be named 2020 Chancellor’s Report A Note about This Report Waking up with gum in his hair is just the beginning of the trials and tribulations encountered by the petulant Alexander, who has been earning the sympathy of readers since 1972. In the enduring children’s book by Judith Viorst, we are reminded that people of all ages have terrible, horrible times, and Alexander offers us the commiseration we crave as well as a reminder that things may not be all that bad. When we reflect on 2020, we are quick to note that, on the surface it seems like a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. But as we look inward, we recognize, as Alexander did, that things are really better than they seem. With respect, we borrow the title from Ms. Viorst’s timeless writing, add a touch of Dr. Seuss’ Grinch, and the sentiment of young Alexander, as we remember 2020 in our Chancellor’s Report. Just a Regular, Normal Kind of Year 2020 began on a hopeful note - as every new year does – with no clue that this could be the beginning of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. The President of the U.S. was impeached, then acquitted. Great Britain left the European Union (they’d been threatening to do so for over a year). Academy Awards were accepted, then declined. Elon Musk named his baby boy X AE A-12! Normal stuff. And, at ASU Mid-South, we excitedly and busily planned and prepared for the 5th Anniversary of the Tommy Goldsby Memorial Wild Game Dinner, the incredible and tremendously successful signature event that raises funds for concurrent student scholarships. Toward the end of February, Dr. Debra West, Chancellor, called together the Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Safety Committee for a meeting to discuss a new and dangerous virus that was hitting China hard and spreading quickly to other parts of the world, including the United States. The decision to call the committee together was not to cause alarm, but to discuss strategies in the event that this novel coronavirus began to impact our campus and community. That meeting was held March 3, 2020. A Better Than Normal Night The Tommy Goldsby Wild Game Dinner of March 7, 2020, was one of the last large gatherings to be held in the Mid-South, maybe even in Arkansas. It was certainly one of the most successful. Few events greet guests with a mermaid serving drinks while suspended from a farm shop ceiling. And that wasn’t even the high point of the evening. We remember well the delectable food, excellent drinks, and lots of hugs and handshakes. There was an abundance of “social” and no “distancing”. At the end of a miraculous evening, we celebrated raising more than one million dollars, in just the past five years, for the Thomas B. Goldsby Scholarship for Concurrently Enrolled Students. Later, we learned that ASU Mid-South’s talented Graphics Designer, Pete Sullivan, would share national honors for the invitation he created for the Goldsby Dinner. ASU Mid-South was recognized alongside other prestigious institutions, including the Auburn University School of Industrial and Graphic Design, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Maryland College of Art. Sullivan won two honorable mentions in the esteemed competition. This was going to be a very good year. If you’re always trying to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be. – Maya Angelou We were preparing to be amazing. We just didn’t know it. Converting Classes, Creating Communications And Just Like That...ZOOM How we pivoted to remote learning in our pajamas With little notice, like all other schools and colleges in Arkansas, and essentially over a weekend, classes at ASU Mid-South were compelled to switch to remote operations because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instructors had to pivot quickly to determine how to best deliver course materials while still being available for assistance to students. Some faculty utilized programs, like PowerPoint, to deliver content, while others strapped on Go Pro cameras to film lectures and deliver videos that show hands-on instruction. Instructors worked with students many, many hours to help them complete the spring semester and put them on a path to success for the fall semester. Some instructors even went so far as calling individual students, who were technologically challenged, and explaining classroom material by phone, just to make sure those students had enough access to instruction to complete the semester. But not all classes could be completed virtually….. What other things were affected by the pandemic and the shift to a non-classroom environment? Not all community college programs are great candidates for total virtual delivery. Some programs have a hands-on component that requires in-person instruction. Such programs at ASU Mid-South were forced to pause for a few weeks and then return to campus during the summer, in order to complete the hands- on portions of their classes. Certain programs, including Aviation Maintenance Technology, Machining, Mechatronics (Industrial Maintenance), Emergency Medical Technology, and Certified Nurse Assistant programs all returned to campus with social distancing, face mask protocols, and other CDC-recommended practices to finish out the spring semester. But the Bigger Story Is….. “The bigger story really has been our adaptability and nimbleness with technology,” said Jeff Gray, Vice Chancellor for Learning and Instruction. “Our faculty has become expert at finding resources and best practices to better deliver content to our students.” Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it is less good than the one you had before. – Elizabeth Edwards “The pandemic has certainly challenged all of us to rethink the traditional classroom. We have known that our students want flexibility, and this has forced us to expedite solutions to meet that expectation. Many of our new technologies in use today were only in the early stages of investigation before COVID-19 hit.” Instructors in every program are embracing the use of technology to deliver classroom content. In many cases, instructors are working across multiple delivery methods in a single class. “There’s definitely no such thing as a ‘normal’ day anymore,” remarked Mark McClellan, Lead Faculty for History and Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for General Education. “You could be teaching a face-to-face class with multiple students opting for virtual class delivery, multiple students in quarantine, and multiple students who have opted for online-only delivery. You definitely learn to work on the fly!” Many of the instructors have been able to use this time to experiment with different ways of delivery to find what methods work best for different of students. For Mario Martinez Cabrera, math instructor, that has meant spending the summer creating a series of videos and recorded content for teaching college algebra. He has used student feedback to develop improvements to the content and the way it’s delivered. Cabrera believes he’s actually seen improvement in student performance using the recorded content. “Students spend more time on their homework, because they can watch a video and then re-watch portions of it on a particular concept while doing homework. I think they love having resources available to them. They can find what works best and when they do, it’s very rewarding.” Erin Gordon, Lead Faculty for Natural Science, is thankful for a BOSCH grant that supplied Apple iPad Pro devices in the science classrooms in 2019. The device has allowed her to record content, and also use the iPad to make annotations on her lecture slides. Using Canvas, ASU Mid-South’s Learning Management System, students can access class content and even take exams using their cell phones. Gordon has also seen student engagement improve. “Some students are just shy about asking questions in the classroom setting. But they are more open to asking questions through email,” she stated. Instructors have gained much knowledge about a post- pandemic classroom. McClellan commented, “It opens you up to possibilities in teaching that you may not have considered before, because you just didn’t realize you needed it before the pandemic.” Cabrera agrees, “You have to have the willingness to try new teaching styles. I believe the way we deliver education from now on will be different.” Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it is less good than the one you had before. – Elizabeth Edwards Hot Spots Virtually impossible made virtually certain By April, the possibility of a global pandemic had become a reality. We were experiencing fear, uncertainty, ever-changing timelines, and confusing directions. The only thing that seemed clear was that this would certainly be a difficult year. How could we avoid trampling traditions and still make the best of our students’ unprecedented circumstances? Virtual Graduation When students learned that the 2020 Commencement Program could not be held with the traditional pomp and circumstance, they were noticeably disappointed. So, the Advancement and Student Affairs teams put their creative heads together to produce a graduation program that would be incredibly special. Engaging our graduates in planning and executing the program made for a remarkable virtual experience, which was both historic and memorable for all involved. The virtual ceremony, with much ritual and celebration, was streamed online, shown live on social media, and broadcast on our local cable TV station. Stephanie La'shelle Crayton Associate of Arts Certificate of General Studies Magna Cum Laude Phi Theta Kappa Sigma Kappa Delta Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what is possible; and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.