Dear City Colleges friends and partners,
I hope you are well. While we are sheltered in place and so many things we are accustomed to doing are put on hold, I am pleased that our students’ educations continue. During this time of unprecedented challenge, City Colleges of Chicago is committed to providing our students with every possible support to ensure they reach their goals.
Below is a brief list of what we have been up to over the last few weeks:
• On March 23rd, City Colleges implemented remote learning and shifted classes for more than 30,000 credit-earning students online. This was no small task as we went from 10 percent of credit class sections being taught fully online to 92 percent of credit class sections being taught fully online as of today.
• We also shifted our student services from previously being almost entirely in-person to exclusively online, including admissions, advising, the library, tutoring, financial aid, registrar, business office, veterans services, transfer services, wellness center, information technology help desk, disability access centers, and our Call Center. Students can find them at www.ccc.edu/vss.
o The Wellness Center at each City College provides emotional support and helps students find the resources they need, inside or out of the college. With the move to virtual online students services, the Wellness Center directors from across the district have created a way to offer virtual counseling walk-in hours for any CCC student who needs support.
• To facilitate the transition to remote learning, we trained faculty and staff on Brightspace, our online learning management system and Zoom, our online meeting tool, and we have shipped more than 1,600 laptops to students with more on the way.
• We are transitioning our emergency fund online. The COVID-19 City Colleges Student Emergency Fund will begin the process of offering financial support directly to students soon.
• On April 13, City Colleges’ free adult education courses, including GED and English as a Second Language, will start to be offered via distance learning. We are also offering loaner laptops for adult education students, who can apply here.
• Students in the Class of 2020 will be invited to take part in a virtual commencement ceremony this summer.
• Students struggling in their remote classes have a relief valve with new academic policies, including no-cost course retake options.
• We have also delayed the majority of proposed tuition changes to future years.
Some of this work has been covered by media including: WLS-TV, WTTW, and The Chicago Defender.
Our students remain a source of constant inspiration. We invite you to read the story of one such hero, Khadijah Ahmad, a Daley College student who continues to work at a Certified Nursing Assistant, caring for residents in a South Side nursing home while she completes her classes via remote learning.
I am so proud of our students, faculty, staff, and our supportive community, elected, and philanthropic partners for all the work done to get us where we are today. Thank you!
If you would like to do even more, we invite you to directly support our students through a donation to the COVID-19 City Colleges of Chicago Student Emergency Fund.
Stay safe, stay home,
Juan Salgado
Chancellor
