Campus Update for Students – April 14

April 14, 2020

Dear Students,

I hope that each of you are safe and in good health. I know that this pandemic has been challenging for each of you on so many levels, and I am grateful for your resilience. We are here to support you and we believe in each one of you.

I hope that you had an opportunity to read our President’s Weekly update that was distributed yesterday via email. Each week, this communication will continue to serve as a key source of information regarding campus updates and new information about our ongoing response to this pandemic. In addition, we will continue to share additional email communication on a periodic basis, to keep our campus community informed. I also want to share a link to some key support services we have available for each of you. Click here to visit online student support.

Providing Technology Support for our Students

As we learned that we would have to close our campus, we invited each of you to complete a brief survey so that we could learn more about the challenges they are experiencing and more importantly the ways in which we can assist them. Over 4,200 students completed this survey, and 9% reported that they did not have access to a reliable computer. Others indicated that they did have access to reliable internet or WiFi access. In response and to support our students, Fullerton College has purchased 1,700 laptop computers, to be distributed to our students.

Students will have the opportunity to request technology support by utilizing a brief form which they can access at the following link

Request Technology Support

Once the laptops are ready for distribution, our staff will be conducting a safe, in-person distribution (with appropriate social distancing). Based on feedback from the vendor, we anticipate that the college will receive the laptop delivery at the end of this week or next week at the latest. I want to thank the members of our Academic Computing Technologies team for their efforts to make this opportunity a reality.

Update on Commencement

After careful consideration, we are sad that we will not be able to hold our traditional commencement ceremony at Sherbeck Field on May 23. As a result, we felt the most important thing we could do would be to ask our students what they and their families would prefer.

In an effort to determine what our students would prefer as an alternative, we surveyed our graduating students. Based on the survey responses, over 72% expressed a preference for an in-person ceremony to be held later in the year, when it would be safe to do so. As a result, we are planning to have an in-person commencement ceremony in December 2020. In addition and to respond to the preferences of the other 28% of our graduating students who were open to a virtual recognition, we have decided to create a “virtual commencement experience” which will be presented on May 23.

This will not take the form of a live commencement such as some of the virtual commencement ceremonies that other universities have planned. Instead, it will feature some video recorded content, as well as a list of the graduates, their degree(s) and hopefully, will serve as something they can keep and remember for years to come. We will share more on our commencement plans in the near future.

President’s Office Hour & President’s Open Forum (Virtual Format)

This Friday, April 17 at 3 p.m. I will be hosting a President Office Hour via Zoom and I invite you to participate. For more information and the zoom call-in information, please see the April 13 President’s Weekly. In addition, I will be hosting a President’s Open Forum, using a Zoom town hall format, on Thursday, April 23 at 9 a.m. Additional details will be shared in the April 20 edition of President’s Weekly.

Closing Thoughts

Although I’ve cherished the opportunity to be with my family, I must tell you that I miss seeing each of you on our beautiful campus every day. I look forward to the day when we will be reunited on campus, when it is safe to reopen the entire campus to all faculty, staff and students.

This crisis has unmasked a number of challenges that members of our community face on a regular basis. Specifically, the crisis that we are navigating as a college and across our country has exposed the fact that students and families living in poverty are experiencing the worst of this crisis.

Our faculty and staff take great pride in doing everything we can to deliver an exceptional Fullerton College experience to each of you. Most important, we believe in each of you and encourage you to keep going.

For more support and resources, I encourage you to view this brief video:

View video on Youtube
View video on YouTube

I wish you the best in your studies this semester. I know that many of you are preparing to graduate and transfer, and I hope to see each of our returning students this summer and/or next fall.

Wishing you peace and good health,

Greg Schulz, Ed.D.
President
Fullerton College
714.992.7001
gschulz@fullcoll.edu