On July 23, 2020, UA Cossatot Chancellor, Dr. Steve Cole, spoke at the Capitol, during the Education Committee meeting of the Arkansas Legislative Council.  At the meeting, Dr. Cole shared UA Cossatot’s fall 2020 COVID-19 Plan, which is now available for the public to view on the college’s website.  

The purpose of this institutional plan is to prepare UA Cossatot’s staff, students, and community for the fall 2020 semester at all UA Cossatot campuses. This summer, Dr. Cole selected a COVID-19 Task Force to build a plan for the fall semester. The plan is now complete and it contains guidelines that are in place to provide the safest working and learning environment possible.

The plan includes topics such as health and safety guidelines, department procedures, and class size management. While several classes this fall will be available online, many courses will still be available in a traditional on-campus setting. These classes will be familiar to many students, but they will be reduced in the total number of students per class so everyone can social distance.

UA Cossatot Division Chairs and faculty have been working together to finalize classroom operation plans for traditional classes, flex classes, and online courses so students can feel safe and focus on learning.  For classes offered on-campus, everyone will be required to wear face masks and rooms will be disinfected after each class has ended.  Many courses will also be available in a hybrid format.

Since the college’s knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 continues to evolve, UA Cossatot will continue to monitor COVID-19 trends locally, statewide, and regionally to update guidance as circumstances warrant throughout the semester.

As the first college in Arkansas to offer an online degree, UA Cossatot is prepared and has taken precautions to make classes offered on-campus available online if the college is forced to do that at some point in the semester.

UA Cossatot Chancellor Dr. Steve Cole said, “Job one for us this semester is to provide a learning environment that is as safe as possible. COVID-19 has turned our world upside down but we wanted to try to achieve some sort of normalcy for our students during this fall semester. We understand the respect we must give this virus and we understand that our students want to protect themselves and their families. Hopefully with our fall 2020 COVID-19 plan we can create an atmosphere that lets our students know that we care about their health and learning.”

The complete UA Cossatot fall 2020 COVID-19 plan can be viewed at www.cccua.edu/novel-coronavirus.