Howard Community College Announces Plans for Fall Semester

COLUMBIA, MD – Howard Community College has announced its plans to gradually increase in-person operations over the summer with the goal of being fully operational on campus for the start of the fall semester.

Starting on the first day of the summer I session on June 2, college operations will be at least 50%, with each office, department, and division setting hours to ensure the necessary on-campus coverage to assist students, other employees, and the public. Appointments are preferred. Buildings will be open and select study spaces will be available. Face coverings will continue to be required on campus.

When fall classes start on August 28, 2021, the college campus will be fully operational with all programs and services offered in person. Virtual services will continue to be offered based on student or employee demand.

Fall registration is currently underway. Given the announcement about fall operations, the college will make changes to its fall schedule until May 3 to allow for greater numbers of hybrid and face-to-face courses to be added. These courses will be offered in a broad range of academic areas – mathematics, social sciences, arts and humanities, sciences, English, business, health sciences, and culinary and hospitality.

The course formats for the fall semester will be:

• Face-to-face: classes will be 100% in person on campus. There may still be some online support for communication, assignments, and more.
• Hybrid: instruction will be both in-person and on-campus and delivered via Canvas. The most common hybrid courses are a 50/50 split of on-campus and online.
• Scheduled remote: meet at designated times in an online classroom. The times are listed in the class schedule, and the courses will be listed as scheduled Zoom, scheduled Blackboard, or scheduled Canvas.
• Flexible online: study on your own time. These courses may or may not use Zoom, and recorded lectures are posted for students to watch on their own time. These courses still have due dates and are listed in the schedule as online.

“The college’s top priority remains the health, safety, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff,” said Dr. Kathleen Hetherington, president of Howard Community College. “It has been an academic year unlike any other, and faculty, staff, and students should be commended for continuing to successfully navigate remote, hybrid, and limited face-to-face instruction and services. With the reopening plan, the college maximizes student success, while maintaining necessary precautions to protect the college community.”

The college’s reopening committee, which worked on the reopening plan, will continue to evaluate the college’s operational status using established metrics and critical indicators and will track the Howard County positivity rate for COVID-19, the county seven-day case average, and the college’s reported seven-day average of positive cases. The return to a remote environment can occur when two of the three critical indicators are met: the positivity rate is above 10% over a seven-day range; the Howard County seven-day rolling average case rate per 100,000 population increases to greater than 25; or HCC’s reported seven-day average of positive cases is greater than 10.

The reopening plan is available for review at: howardcc.edu/reopening. For more information about the college’s response to coronavirus, please visit howardcc.edu/coronavirus.

To search the schedule for summer and fall classes, visit howardcc.edu/classes. Information about the college and how to apply, visit howardcc.edu/keeplearning.