Ep. 11 - Will classes be back on campus?

Welcome to Episode 11 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast! Many of you have asked us in appointments and through social media about when we are coming back campus, will we still have online classes, will the COVID vaccine be mandatory, etc. Well, who best to answer those questions than CSUSB's Provost, Dr. Shari McMahan! 

In this episode, we have:

• Dr. Shari McMahan - Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, CSUSB 

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Welcome to the CSUSB Advising Podcast. Join us as we bring you the latest advising updates at Cal State. San Bernardino, each episode is specifically made for you the CSUSB students and parents. We provide you advising tips interviews with both CSUSB campus resources and those in academic advising. Sit back and enjoy. Go Yotes.

Star Wildes  
Hi everyone and again, welcome back spring 2021. Is here, and we are so excited. How you doing today? 

Matt Markin  
Hey, Star, I'm doing well. How are you?

Star Wildes  
I'm hanging in there. I hope everyone is healthy, well and safe. And we have an amazing guest, and we are just so excited to be able to have this and host this with our amazing guest. Matt, can you give us a little bit more information on who we invited?

Matt Markin  
Yeah, so on social media, we've been asking you, yodes, for questions on the special guest, and that is with our very own Provost, Shari McMahan. A lot of you in our appointments and through social media, have been asking about things like summer and fall. Are we going to be on campus? Is it going to be in person? Are we still going to have online classes? What's the deal with all of that? Lot of great questions that you have had that we're like, hey, let's ask someone who probably has some of those answers, or can give us some more insight. So we asked Provost McMahon to join us, and here we go. 

Matt Markin  
Dr. Shari McMahanMcMahon is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University San Bernardino. Provost McMahon is responsible for leading the largest division within Cal State San Bernardino, she oversees the university's five academic colleges, in addition to several other related entities such as the John M Pfau Library, academic research, community engagement, enrollment management, undergraduate and graduate studies, extended and Global Education, and our Palm Desert campus. Provost McMahon, welcome to the podcast. 

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Thank you. Welcome everyone. Glad to be here.

Star Wildes  
That's so amazing and welcome again. We're so humbled to have you here on our CSUSB advising podcast. So listen up everyone as we go ahead and go right into this. So here's a popular question, Dr. McMahon, from a lot of students and we are asked almost each time we have a virtual Social Media Live session, when will our campus reopen?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
The way I look at it is that we've never closed in the way that we have fully been able to operationalize all of our services online, and that's been very important in the pandemic when students have needed services involving supplemental instruction or mental health services, counseling, the clubs and organizations, all of those student support services have been functioning online. So I'd like to think that we have not closed now maybe, if the question is when they'll be physically able to come back. We are hoping that the county will lower the risk, the color of risk that we're at, which will allow students to come back on campus. And we are busy working with the department chairs and the Deans and the faculty senate and a whole variety of groups to to work through a zillion scenarios, so to speak, to make sure that we can repopulate the campus safely. So as soon as we're able to, we will be able to bring groups in. Right now, San Bernardino County, and is in a purple category, which is no in person. You know, activities are very minimal at this point. But as we move through people getting vaccinated, which will be really important in this process, and trying to get to herd immunity, those color those risk categories, will go down, and meaning we'll have, we'll be able to populate in person more often.

Matt Markin  
So yeah, we appreciate that. And I think also, you know, speaking for myself, for star, and you know, a lot of folx at Cal State, San Bernardino and in the community, we appreciate all the hard work that you and the rest of the team have been doing, and all these conversations and discussions and research that you all are doing, and we know how much stress it might be, you know, to have to do all of that, but you're making it safe for everyone, and we definitely appreciate that. And going into that, you know, as we continue with navigating this virtual learning environment during the spring semester, do you have any anything you would like to encourage students to do as they're navigating this?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Well, again, as I mentioned, you know, all of our services are online, and if they've hesitated, you know, going over to the writing center or hesitated, you know, looking at what's offered through peer mentoring or supplemental instruction. And within advising This is the time to do it, because, you know, you can remain relatively anonymous, but still get those questions answered and get the support that you need if you have you know challenges at home or you need to talk to somebody all our mental health professionals. I mean, these are just common things that you go through in college, so it is not a time to be embarrassed, ashamed, afraid. You know, we want to provide those services for you. So feel comfortable stepping out. And I say this based on personal experience. When I was in college, I would hyperventilate in class, and I didn't really know I was hyperventilating. I just knew that one day, I thought I was going to pass out, so I went over to the Student Health Center, because I just didn't feel good. I didn't feel right. And they assessed me very quickly, and they took me over to psychological counseling. And I had no idea why I was going to psychological counseling, but in fact, I was experiencing panic attacks, and that really changed the way I looked at seeking counseling and seeking help when you know, you're not sure what's going on, and it's scary out there, and these are scary times. You know, all of our families and you know, just the world we live in is so different. So I just want to let you know this is safe. It's safe for you to reach out and you're in a good place.

Star Wildes  
It's awesome. So much for sharing your own personal experience and the resources that students only have access to virtually, but the encouragement to seek out that help and ask for help when needed at any point in time, many students have met with and very concerned and having difficult, difficult time, let's say with virtual learning. Matt and I and as advisors, have been hearing that with work, parents losing their job, taking care of their younger siblings, etc. So every situation is different, but any advice or suggestions for students who may be considering taking the semester off?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Oh, boy, that's a great question. You know, I really hope our students will just stick it through. Maybe they can't take 15 units. You know, that's been our goal, obviously in advising, because we know that'll quicken your time to get out of here, which leads to a higher paying job and a higher paying future for you. So we try to think of that with that in mind, however, given these turbulent times, we really just want you to stay enrolled. Do what you can do. We'll make up for it. We'll try to offer greater summer session or other opportunities when we can get back to normal, but it's so important that you gradually make your way through, because in the end, you will benefit. That's that's the goal. It's with you in mind, not us in mind, right? So we want you to be stable and have that promising future and outlook. So if you could just stay enrolled, that would be really important.

Matt Markin  
Absolutely great advice with that. Now this one's kind of a combination question, because it involves summer and fall, and we know, based off your question that we first asked about, you know, being returning back to campus or having in person classes. You know, we have the summer session coming up and as well as the fall term, and we know that the hope is to hopefully return back, but only safely return on campus for in person classes. Students have been asking if we'll know prior to summer or fall registration time if we'll be in person.

Dr. Shari McMahan  
So yes, thank you. You know, we're starting to make plans now because we've got to build those schedules. So that's really important, and we've spent since January 3, since we've been back all the administrators on campus and the department chairs, we have had conversations, if not weekly, almost daily, at least every other day, on the topic about what we can do feasibly. So you know, our goal is to be back in person, and we are going to present a schedule that where most students will be in person, right? And that will be our goal. So we're planning along those lines, with the caveat that if we're not 100% okay, there will be some flexible options. And I say that because I mentioned the risk levels earlier. So if the county health departments put us at, let's say, 50% we'll make sure that our students are here 50% and we'll offer some hybrid opportunities. That means they'll take a class, but then only half the time they're on campus, and half the time they can do the virtual type of learning. But our goal is to try to schedule as many in person as possible for the fall. For the summer, it's a little bit differently because, as you know, the vaccine hasn't been rolling out. As quick as we'd all like. So we are still planning virtually in the summer, because that will happen in just a few months, right? I mean, we'll be in February next month, and we'll be starting summer in May, the end of May, right? Because of graduation. And so I think to better safely plan, we will plan virtual however, just like we do now, if there are in person experiences such as labs and other types of arts and, you know, glass making or whatever it might be that we do offer those in person, but our schedule won't be built in summer for an in person activities. I think we're going to use that, that room, that wiggle room, over those next two months, and calibrate August schedule return in full. And that's our goal. Again, we'll have backup methods based on the Public Health Department mandates, and we will work accordingly. Our goal is to make sure that campus is safe as possible.

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much for providing that information, and it's very helpful as students continue to plan out, you know, summer and fall, and we do have some students that we met with who quite enjoy the flexibility, right? And different learning environments being virtual has been virtual. Learning has been given to us even when we have in person. Classes. Are there talks of potentially offering online classes, whether synchronous or asynchronous? I know you touch a little bit about this, but you know, with with students enjoying it, we have more. Will we see more of that, even if we were to return on campus?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Sure, and exactly Star. I think that's it. I think some faculty are really getting the neck of it and are enjoying that interface. And again, both ways, some faculty are not real happy with teaching in an online setting. And so we'll see both occurring. Those faculty that are just didn't pick it up quite well, wanting to come back in person, and those faculty that have really adapted and are able to motivate students and move them along successfully online, we'll opt to do that so we are guided under WASC, which is our regional accreditation right that it has guidelines for programs that go over 50% online. And so I think initially those were encouraging online learning, at least sections of online learning, so students will be able to have those needs accommodated, as well as at least one in person section, right? But crow programs that go fully online have to go through separate accreditation types of experiences, and so we're monitoring that the most important thing, regardless if we go all virtual or not virtual or in in class, is that the student has a good experience online. And we haven't found that necessarily in all of our classes, because it has been quite a pivot for many of our faculty. And so the most important thing is that we want to assure students a good experience, and look at ways where we can make sure those that are taking online classes have you know instructors that are trained properly and that both all benefits from those experiences.

Matt Markin  
And kind of connected to that. And you mentioned the vaccine, you know, the slow rollout of it right now. But Are there conversations going on regarding when we do end up having in person classes at some point? Will the covid vaccine be required, or even how you monitor that?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Sure. Thank you. That's and that's an excellent question, and one of the first questions I posed to the Public Health Department. So our director has been, you know, quite involved with the campus, the director of San Bernardino County Public Health, and we've had a couple of venues, both with Riverside and San Bernardino County Health, and in speaking with him, because I asked if the vaccine would be made mandatory, right and when it would be made mandatory, and right now, while it's still going through these initial stages, there really isn't an appetite to mandate it, until we know a little bit More. It's under the emergency authorization act right now, and while it's under emergency authorization, we cannot mandate it. And so we do believe maybe by fall, maybe by next winter, there may be a push, the push coming from County Public Health right to have it mandated, just like some of your other vaccine students come in with, right? We get our shots from when we're in infants, right moving forward, and so eventually we won't have to mandate it. Hopefully it'll just be mandated through our public health department as a requirement to come into school. So we're not at that stage yet. But. I do want to encourage people to get vaccinated, because we do know from public health background and and I developed a public health program in my lifetime, so I'm excited about that, that it's really important that we get vaccinated.

Star Wildes  
So thank you so much for answering that. And I know many times I hear being asked about returning to campus. So the word returning right, and I know you had discussed that and covered that, but our transfer students who started last fall, and our first time freshmen, first year students who started last fall as well, have never been on campus right, or may have come on campus to utilize Wi Fi. So shout out, remember, you could still utilize Wi Fi on campus. So they would not be turning to campus, but coming to campus for the first time, as much as they are coyotes right now and they've never experienced being physically on campus, would a second orientation or activities workshop be something that might be looked at for all the students who'd be returning to campus, and this is their first time being physically on campus?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
You know, Star, that's an excellent suggestion, and one I will bring forward to our orientation team and our enrollment management, because it's really because, you know, again, that sense of belonging if you haven't been on campus, you know, you just you missed certain things. And so again, we want to make sure that our students feel connected to the campus and more ways than just the academic experience online, but the physical presence and the activities and all of the exciting things that that happen on a college campus. So I will certainly pass that suggestion along, and we will move forward with that bottom line. Thank you for that suggestion.

Matt Markin  
And as we wrap up the interview, you know you've been at Cal State San Bernardino since September 2016 through these years. What do you enjoy about working and the work that you do at Cal State, San Bernardino?

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Do you know my favorite? I have two favorite days of the year. The graduation day is my favorite, right? And it's just watching those students and their families and knowing that transformation is occurring for them and their families. And to me, that is the most rewarding feel, feeling that anybody can get. But also, the first day of school is also exciting. Exciting, you know, I get the jitters when I was faculty going in to teach for the, you know, first day, because you just get so excited knowing that you're going to have such rich conversations, and the students are so eager to learn, and we have such humble students. And I mean, I love being on this campus, virtually or not virtually, because I know the difference that that diploma makes at the end of the day. And so that's what I'm most excited about, because it provides them. You know, once I heard from our former chancellor in the CSU system, Chancellor White that education is the antidote to poverty, and we will change that through educating and giving people, you know, the critical thinking skills and the opportunities to do what they are, you know, put on this earth to do. And I think that's really, you know, just a blessing, and the closer we can get them to have that connection and make them feel purposeful in our society, the better off we are. So I'm excited all the time, but that's the main time.

Star Wildes  
Thank you excited all the time, absolutely. And having worked with you know, our amazing Provost here students, if you have any questions, please don't be afraid to reach out. But also, you know, Matt and I, Matt, you are first generation. I know I'm a CSUSB, so we basically grew up here. So again, we're just humbled and blessed about this opportunity with Dr man, thank you so much, Provost. I know busy, but you took the time to come out and answer our students questions. So students, if you're listening to this, we hope that your questions were answered. We hope that you have the opportunity to ask us more and again, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Shari McMahan  
Thank you so much. All right. Well, good luck everyone. We'll see you soon, and remember to check in with us, because we want to make sure that we're here for you. 

Star Wildes  
Thank you so much, Provost McMahan, for joining us and providing our students and listeners, family and friends, this amazing information that they could take with them. And yodes Again, thank you so much for listening. We want to make sure that you continue to follow us via our social media handle on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and again, if you have any questions, you could always email us as well follow CSUSB, advising on your social media platforms. And again, thank you so much for listening.