Brief: Valley prepares for in-person and hybrid classes in the fall

About half of all the fall classes will take place on campus at the start of the new school year.

By Gabriel Arizon, Editor-in-Chief

As Valley College looks to open up for the upcoming fall semester, a number of classes have been selected for in-person and hybrid learning.

According to Valley President Barry Gribbons, the college is looking to start the next semester with approximately half of all classes being conducted either completely in-person or in a hybrid format. About 415 classes will be in-person while 214 will be conducted in the latter format. The remaining half will stay online. Hybrid classes will have students spend a portion of their time doing in-person learning and the rest online. On-campus sessions will still meet up to 50 percent capacity. Nearly all departments will offer some in-person or hybrid classes.

Gribbons stated that a variety of factors went into deciding which classes would be in-person, hybrid or online. Some disciplines already offered a hybrid model before the pandemic, while others had a history of having a large portion of their classes online prior to the majority of classes being moved to that format.

“By and large, all the departments worked hard to bring a lot of in-person classes back to the campus for the fall semester,” Gribbons stated. “Nonetheless, we’ll still have a lot of classes for students that take online, if that’s their preference.”

The current plan is to have all faculty and students who come to campus complete a COVID-19 symptom self-check, either through a link online from the school website or through the LAVC Safe app. Visitors will also be asked to wear a mask at all times, regardless of if they have been vaccinated. In the event of an exposure, the school will follow the Exposure Management Plan laid out by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Valley is also reviewing all in-person services to see which could potentially return for the fall. As of yet, no plans have been finalized.