In this unprecedented time, people need a sense of continuity and productivity to remain focused on the future. As the Coronavirus pandemic has made everything in life seem uncertain, pursuing a college degree at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, will remain certain.

We are providing students an opportunity for personal progress and achievement by ensuring that they can continue to participate in their classes. We will continue to recruit, enroll, educate and graduate students throughout this crisis.

After a brief three-day reboot in mid-March, SCF began spring term classes again on March 19 with nearly all our course offerings online. Through an incredible, highly coordinated effort from our faculty and staff we converted about 1,800 course sections to online delivery. Normally, about 32% of our courses are delivered online. Now, we are at 97%. We will continue with online programming throughout the rest of spring term. Currently, students are still visiting each of our campuses to receive technical assistance with accessing and participating in online classes.

We have worked hard to ensure that both current and future SCF students have access to our full range of services in our expanded online environment. Some of these services include admissions services, registration and transcripts, financial aid services, academic and career advising, tutoring services, mental health counseling and disability resources. We are also continuing our retention efforts and the recruitment of new students for the upcoming summer and fall semesters. Registration for Summer 2020 is currently underway and registration for Fall 2020 opens April 6. Our call center is also operational – when students call, they are speaking with a live person. All our services can be accessed by phone, email, online and video conference.

Our ability to transition quickly to this new environment is due to several things. First, we have an incredible team of staff and faculty at SCF that is committed to the success of our students. Because of their dedication, resiliency and creativity, our business continuity plan is successful.

Five years ago, we created a vision for a virtual online campus in our 2015-2020 Boldly Engaging Strategic Plan. The goal was to provide students the ability to be fully online from recruitment to graduation with all the courses and services they needed to achieve their higher education objective. Pursuing that goal enhanced our preparation to adapt so quickly to our new situation.

The SCF Information Technology Services Department made numerous critical upgrades to ensure that the College can function and continue to deliver higher education through a natural disaster. Over the past couple of years, SCF has moved all its critical systems and services to the cloud to better serve students by providing remote online access to the resources and services they need anytime, anywhere and from any device. Our mobile app gives students quick, convenient access to registration, grades, email, the Canvas Learning Management System and tuition and fee payment.

SCF is here for our community to provide a sense of continuity, achievement and progress for our students. We will continue to provide the courses and services our students need throughout this crisis.

If you are currently a student at SCF, continue to pursue your degree. If you were planning to be a student this summer or next fall, join us. SCF is here to ensure the pathway to your future is still clear.

Carol Probstfeld is president of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.