2020 pellissippi state community college Annual Report Pellissippi State Community College A Letter From The President the year of covid-19 In the face of challenging circumstances, legendary Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt often advised, “Left foot, right foot, breathe, repeat.” It is an apt description of the approach many students, faculty and staff have taken in response to the extraordinary disruption of a global pandemic. When we left for spring break in March 2020, our faculty committed to moving all of our courses online for the duration of the semester and our staff dedicated themselves to serving students at a distance. A Coronavirus Response Team started meeting twice daily to work on how we could best serve our students remotely – and how we could use our resources to help a community in crisis. Individuals across Pellissippi State stepped up to volunteer their time and expertise to projects with far-reaching impact, such as making personal protective equipment for frontline health care workers on the 3D printers in our Strawberry Plains Campus’ MegaLab. As we moved through summer and into fall, we were able to offer a number of our technical courses in person and continued to adapt instruction and support to an online environment that posed significant When Pellissippi State faculty and students left for spring challenges to many members of our College community. break in March 2020, they had no idea many of them would You’ll read some of these stories in the pages of this Annual Report, but others preferred to stay out of not return to campus for the rest of the calendar year. the limelight. Know that for every story we were able to share with our stakeholders, there are countless From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, a That difficult decision meant that all College events others of Pellissippi State faculty, staff and students quietly, sometimes anonymously, reaching out to Coronavirus Response Team of Pellissippi State staff planned through May 11, 2020, were canceled, includ- help others who were struggling during the pandemic. They represent the very best of who we are and was working daily to figure out how to keep employees ing spring Commencement and the Nursing Pinning who we aspire to be. and students safe while still providing the best edu- Ceremony. Originally postponed until August and later cational experience possible during unprecedented canceled, the ceremonies were held virtually in Decem- I am proud of what Pellissippi State was able to accomplish in 2020, but I cannot say I am surprised. We challenges. Coronavirus updates emailed to faculty, ber instead as the pandemic raged on. staff and students and uploaded to a new coronavirus # “We know this is not the semester you imagined. It is used PellissippiStrong as a tagline for our campus community long before any of us had heard the word webpage began March 13, 2020, as the College commu- not the semester we imagined. But we will get through “coronavirus.” I am fortunate to have the opportunity to see it every day and grateful for the opportunity nity grappled with rapidly changing information about this together,” Wise said in an email to faculty, staff and what we were up against. to share it with you here. students when the pandemic began. “We have a dedicat- President L. Anthony Wise Jr. announced March 19, ed group of employees working every day to ensure we 2020, that it was in the best interest of faculty, staff and cover all our bases so we can finish the semester Pellis- students to move classes and student services online sippi Strong. This includes everything from offering for the remainder of the spring semester, with very few advising and tutoring online or by phone to making exceptions. This serious decision was made after the sure our work-study students and part-time employees White House and the Centers for Disease Control and get paid, even if their jobs change to duties they can do L. Anthony Wise Jr. Prevention revised their guidance that social gatherings remotely.” President should be limited to 10 or fewer people, a challenge for Pellissippi State Community College any institution. 3 2020 annual report Pellissippi State Community College All but essential employees such as Campus Police were sent home immediately to work remotely. Everyone had to learn how to do their jobs from home. Microsoft Teams and Zoom became daily tools for keeping the College connected. Marketing and Commu- nications sent faculty, staff and students daily updates to keep everyone on the same page despite the distance. Knowing that the transition to an online learning environment was a monumental shift, Pellissippi State put into place more resources to make sure no students would fall through the cracks. The College rallied to provide students with technology to take home – every- thing from laptops to internet hot spots – and bolstered the Wi-Fi available outside campus buildings so that students could access the internet from their cars out in parking lots. A new PantherHelp As fall 2020 loomed, another group of Pellissippi State employees launched Virtual Walk-in Student Services so team was created to check in with students personally by phone and that students could get the help they needed with Admissions, Financial Aid and other offices before the semester text, and students were encouraged to fill out the PantherHelp form started. online or email PantherHelp with their questions and concerns so that the team could connect them to the right services. Pellissippi State’s Coronavirus Response Team also used the summer to brainstorm how and when to reopen offices and bring faculty, staff and students back to campus. The team, led yb Police Chief Terry Crowe, created a phased Meanwhile, a new StayStrong team was created to check in with plan for reopening and safety protocols that are still in place. Anyone who is reporting to a Pellissippi State campus faculty and staff and provide them with additional support. must fill out a Daily Campus Access and Screening form, available online and as an app for smartphones, to ensure they are not exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus or have been exposed to it. Once on campus, masks are required “We know this is not the semester you imagined. It is not the inside all Pellissippi State buildings, as well as outside when social distancing guidelines of 6 feet cannot be main- tained. Designated entrances and exits, additional hand sanitizing stations and posted maximum capacities for semester we imagined. But we will get through this together,” classrooms and common spaces were among the physical changes on campus. -L. Anthony Wise Jr. Despite everything that changed at Pellissippi State – and in the world – in 2020, the College awarded 1,645 diplomas and 591 certificates. The College’s 2020 graduates were the first to have virtual commencements and to pick up their diplomas in drive-thru distribution events. They overcame unprecedented challenges in their final semesters and The efforts from every corner of the College paid off. Pellissippi embodied what it means to be #PellissippiStrong. State’s data from spring 2020 showed that students’ success rates in general education courses such as English, science, math and history did not suffer when classes moved online March 23 for the remainder of the semester. This information bolstered the recommendation from Interim Vice President for Academic AffairsKathy Byrd and CLASS FORMATS the College’s academic deans that Pellissippi State continue to offer virtual and hybrid classes in fall 2020 and spring 2021. Students were able to choose classes taught in a variety of ways: • Online: These traditional online courses do not meet on a certain day or at a certain time, but are taught com- pletely through Pellissippi State’s learning management system, Brightspace; • Virtual: These courses are offered online, but they use virtual platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom to offer instruction at the times and days listed in the College’s schedule; • Hybrid: These courses offer part online or virtu- al instruction and part face-to-face instruction in a classroom or lab, with instructors letting students know which days they will meet on campus; and • On-campus: These courses are taught in a traditional classroom, face-to-face, and will be limited primarily to programs that have a strong hands-on component, such 4 as Nursing and Welding Technology. 5 2020 annual report Pellissippi State Community College helping our community Media Technologies faculty, Nursing students administer COVID-19 Nursing student sews masks students give festival new life vaccine to frontline medical workers for strangers for free with streamed concerts Pellissippi State Nursing students started administer- ing the first rounds of a COVID-19 vaccine to frontline Pellissippi State’s Media Technologies faculty and Nursing student Bridget Frazier had a lot on her plate workers at Covenant Health hospitals in December, with students directed, filmed, recorded, photographed and her final semester at Pellissippi State – wife to a disabled 50 students having volunteered within five minutes of engineered Sites & Sounds from Big Ears, a series of veteran, mother to 6-year-old twins and an emergency room posting the sign-up sheet. intimate concerts at the historic Bijou Theatre during technician at Parkwest Medical Center – but she still made fall 2020. The new livestreaming initiative filled a gap “You are part of something historic that you will tell the time to sew more than 2,000 surgical masks and ship left when Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival was canceled due your grandchildren about,” Nursing Dean Angela them all over the United States to people in need. to coronavirus. Lunsford told students.