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Resilience and Resolve

By CCBC Stories

January 14^th, 2022

In the spring of 2020, when the world shut down due to COVID-19, CCBC quickly transitioned to virtual instruction to preserve the health and safety of its college community. Although necessary at the time, the completion of the spring semester was quite revealing -- nearly 40% of students withdrew from classes. Leadership knew they had to do something different, the success of CCBC students was at risk.

“Although college campuses remained closed throughout the country, I knew that we had to offer our students a better option,” said CCBC President Sandra Kurtinitis. “I wasn’t willing to confine them to virtual learning. Our data showed that many wouldn’t flourish. I was determined not to set them up to fail.”

In the fall of 2020, CCBC reopened its doors for in-person learning, offering 20% of its courses on campus with 80% offered in a virtual or combined format. Although many classes were those that required “hand-on” learning, some General Education courses were offered for those who found virtual instruction challenging. And, the college didn’t experience the double-digit enrollment decline faced by community colleges across the country. CCBC actually exceeded enrollment expectations.

“We worked hard to accommodate students’ needs,” said President Kurtinitis. “We reconfigured and updated our campuses to meet CDC safety requirements, checked temperatures for everyone coming on campus, offered classes in a variety of formats, provided online on-campus computer labs for those lacking technology at home and made sure that all offices that required student interaction were open and staffed. It wasn’t easy, but our faculty and staff were amazing and were fully committed to ensuring our students had what they needed to succeed.”

Plus, to combat the financial challenges compounded by COVID-19, CCBC offered the opportunity for students to attend tuition-free. By the end of the fall semester, 80% of CCBC credit students had received full or partial tuition to cover their classes.

CCBC Sustainable Horticulture student Angie Schwartz was one of the students who found the tuition-free opportunity a lifeline. After having her hours cut while working at a horse therapy farm, she knew she had to reimagine her future.

“I knew I would have to change careers in order to survive,” said Schwartz. “When I found out I was eligible for free tuition at CCBC, it was a no-brainer for me. This opportunity allowed me to return to school without the burden of figuring out how to pay for it and inspired me to start my own business.”

At a steady pace, CCBC made more on-campus classes a reality each semester. In the fall of 2021, 50% of classes were offered onsite.

“We’ve learned many lessons along the way, especially about our resilience and resolve,” expressed President Kurtinitis.

Read President Kurtinitis' blog for more of her reflections on CCBC emerging from the pandemic.

“We took risks, never compromising safety, and built the protocols to support what we wanted and needed to do. In the end, we exceeded beyond our wildest expectations.” — President Kurtinitis