APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Classes began Monday at Fox Valley Technical College, and students were back in full capacity. The return of a typical semester is near, but the pandemic hasn’t been put fully in the rearview mirror quite yet.
“We are back in-person, in ways we haven’t been really in the last 18 months,” said Interim Chief Academic Officer Jennifer Lanter. “A full parking lot came in today, and I’m excited to see students walking the halls bright and early – with masks on, we do have a mask requirement here.”
So there are some precautions still in place, but Lanter says seeing active and full hallways is a good sign.
As classes begin, the college is seeing a 15% increase in the number of class sections being taught in person and a 15% decrease in the number of online classes. In total, FVTC will deliver more than 3,800 class sections in person, online or via virtual classroom.
“There are students here, present, working on labs, working on equipment. I had a chance to walk through our science labs and see full classes…Last year,we did have smaller classes that were about half size, so maybe only nine in a lab? But we’re back to full capacity now,” Lanter said. “We have a lot of students that are learning virtually as well, so they’re meeting with their instructor and with their class online. And [we have] students who are taking classes asynchronously, so just working through their class with their instructor at their own pace and their own time.”
Throughout the past eighteen months, FVTC still had smaller, hands-on courses like truck driving, welding, machining, and others with in-person options. But even the less physically demanding courses are back on campus.
“Marketing and business, those had really transitioned off campus. But now they’re back, [along with] general education classes like in communication skills or math. Those are classes that are returning,” Lanter said. “We’ve also got things that we haven’t had, like food service, back on campus. So all of those resources that maybe have been either suspended or moved off campus they’re open here and ready for students.”
FVTC’s Open House will return this October as an in-person event at all FVTC locations. Event registration will open on Wednesday, September 1.
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