DANVILLE — While most people at Danville Area Community College would much rather think about the fun of hosting a national basketball tournament next week, they are ready to make sure learning goes on in case higher powers institute drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Lara Conklin
“We have had a plan for something like this since H1N1 in 2009,” said Lara Conklin, executive director of college relations at DACC. “At this point, we are not doing social distancing because that would be an over-abundance of caution.”
The same holds true for Parkland College in Champaign.
Stephanie Stuart
“We are continuing to plan and will respond if we need to do that. We have a lot of great systems, a number of online classes already taking place and all the technology required,” Parkland spokeswoman Stephanie Stuart said, adding stricter measures, if implemented, “certainly would be a shift in the middle of the semester.”
Both women have been being involved in many emails and attending lots of meetings recently on the subject of the virus that everyone is hoping will not significantly alter lives in this part of Illinois.
“We’re having conversations both on a countywide level in terms of emergency response and we’re in touch with our colleagues at the University of Illinois. We are working through any plans we might need to employ to keep classes taking place through online learning or other avenues,” Stuart said.
“It’s a developing situation, and we’re monitoring it daily ... and doing everything we can to be as prepared as we can be.”
Online plan for all courses
Conklin, meantime, is doing her best to keep folks calm.
“Right now, when the risk is extremely low in our area, we are simply putting out information for the students online, on social media, through email and in the hallways. For instance, reminders to wash hands, things we have gotten from the Centers for Disease Control to stop the spread of germs,” she said.
Building service workers are giving extra attention in their cleaning of “high-touch” areas, she said.
But, “should the worst happen” and a quarantine be implemented, Conklin said every course offered at DACC, even those done in the classroom, has an online version ready to roll.
“Several years ago, we created a Blackboard shell for every single course,” she said of the online system DACC uses, so that if the campus had to close for terrible weather or a natural disaster, learning could continue online assuming Internet service is intact.
“Should the word come down that we have to close and we can’t gather together, our students would still be able to complete their semester because there is an online platform for every course,” Conklin said.
NJCAA tournament a go
Conklin said officials at DACC are gearing up for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II basketball tournament.
“It starts March 17 and goes through Saturday, March 21,” Conklin said of the 16-team tourney featuring schools from Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Missouri, Maryland, North Dakota, New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and even neighboring Parkland College.
“These guys have worked really hard to make it to a national basketball tournament, and with the threat level where it is right now, it would just be sad to take that away from them,” she said.
Either sold out or low in stock at several area stores Tuesday: face masks, disinfecting wipes, rubbing alcohol and toilet paper.
Those nervous about being in crowds can listen to the games on Danville-based WDAN 1490 AM or see them live-streamed on NJCAA-TV.
Conklin estimated there are about 3,500 students, staff and faculty present at DACC daily.
At Parkland, Stuart said there are approximately 8,000 students, faculty and staff on campus. Students are about to take off for spring break at week’s end and return on March 23.
A mass email went out Tuesday morning from Parkland Wellness Coordinator Sara Maxwell with the common sense tips about hand-washing and mouth-covering but also reminding anyone who travels to a country identified by the CDC as having a level 2 or 3 travel health notice (Japan, Italy, South Korea, Iran, China) that they will have to self-quarantine for 14 days upon returning to the U.S.
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Coronavirus preparation | DACC, Parkland have plan in place - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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