Dear College Family,
First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you once again for your perseverance and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. I remain very proud of our students’ achievements and extremely appreciative of the efforts of faculty and staff to support our students.
I write today to provide you with an update on our plans for the Fall semester. As you all know, this is still a very dynamic situation with many unknowns. We remain committed to providing the highest quality education, while securing the health and safety of our students and employees.
Our governor and the commissioner of education recently presented a reopening plan that was compared to a dimmer switch. As we have outlined in our pandemic recovery plan, this is our precise approach. Our Fall semester will begin as scheduled on September 1 with options for online, face-to-face and hybrid learning as follows:
- We recognize that many students remain concerned about returning to campus, especially those who fall into the category of vulnerable individuals. As such, MDC Online has expanded their catalog of offerings to meet the demand for additional online courses.
- There are many workforce programs and selected courses that are difficult to offer in a remote format. As such, these courses will continue to be offered in a face-to-face format as they have been offered during the summer session. These programs and courses include but are not limited to aviation, health science, culinary arts, and fashion.
- The remaining course offerings will be offered in a blended format. Learning will begin in a remote format on September 1 and continue in a remote format through September 27. Beginning September 28, if conditions allow it, courses will return to campus in a limited fashion with room capacity limits and strict social distancing guidelines. Faculty will communicate to students on what day(s) they will meet on campus.
I hope that these three options allow our students to make final decisions for their Fall schedule and provides sufficient flexibility to meet their learning needs while we continue to navigate this situation.
Thank you.
Dr. Rolando Montoya
Interim President
Miami Dade College