Although some details are not yet final, Black Hawk College has announced its plans for the fall. Classes will start at the normal time, in mid-August, but the final weeks of the semester after Thanksgiving will be completed online.
President Tim Wynes says students will be spread out in the classrooms, made possible in part by the new addition at the Moline campus that opened just last fall.
"They're bigger classrooms, they're more modern classrooms, and they allow us to do just a lot of different things in terms of staging the classrooms so we can space things out for the students and have them keep social distancing."
Face-to-face instruction will be reduced where possible - labs will continue to be held in person but lectures will be held online.
Wynes believes the pandemic will cause more students than ever to decide, much later than usual, whether to attend a four-year school or Black Hawk.
"We're a commuter campus - you can come in, you can take your classes, and go to work and be home. We're going to offer a very safe environment, and for the student that's not all that sure about living in the residence hall or what a large mass of people are going to be like at a university, say like U of I that's 50,000."
Registration is already underway for the fall, but with limited access to both campuses. Additional decisions, such as any possible hiring, will depend on enrollment.
