On Monday (May 11), Fleming College announced that its fall semester, which begins on Tuesday, September 8th, will not include face-to-face classes.
Instead, the fall semester for the college’s 6,800 full-time and 10,000 part-time students will begin with online classes and alternative course delivery until a transition to face-to-face classes can take place.
“Our fall semester will be delivered through alternate models as we prepare for multiple scenarios for our campuses and classrooms to create the utmost in safe learning environments,” says Fleming College president Maureen Adamson. “We will follow guidelines from public health and the province, and our delivery decisions will be focused on the health and safety of everyone in our community.”
Fleming College — which has campuses in Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg, and Haliburton — says its “Fleming Safe” plan will ensure that students can complete the learning outcomes required in their programs while maintaining the highest possible safety standards in compliance with all government and public health directives.
“The plan allows flexibility to react to the loosening of health and safety restrictions by being ready to begin face-to-face applied learning responsibly and appropriately,” Adamson says.
“We do not anticipate that all health and safety restrictions will be lifted all at once — we are ready to respond swiftly to advance student success effectively given the circumstances that will present themselves.”
Fleming College says it will work with community partners to re-establish field placements, field trips, clinical placements, and other applied learning opportunities aligned with health and safety directives.
At the outset of COVID-19 pandemic, Fleming College established task teams to develop the response to the pandemic. The teams assigned to academic programming and facilities protocols are now assembling detailed plans for the return to classes in September.
Alongside planning for the return to class and access to campus facilities this fall, the college is also assessing how students will safely access residence, food services, and athletics.
The college will share decisions on these broader college services and programs in the near future.
“I want to thank our students for their patience,” Adamson says. “We are taking these steps to provide as much certainty as we can for students and their families at this point in time. In keeping with our guiding principle of ‘safety first’, we are dedicated to moving forward and mitigating any risk of recurrence.”
“I also want to thank our Fleming employees for their incredible resilience and dedication to our students and our communities.”
For more information about Fleming College’s response to COVID-19, visit flemingcollege.ca/covid19.
