NORTH CANTON, Ohio — A local community college has been holding in-person classroom instruction for three months and has been able to stay free of any COVID-19 cases.
Stark State College has held in-person classes for the last three months but has not had any cases of COVID-19, accrediting that feat to following strict protocols.
“Because we practice such good protocols, our facilities people clean our air filters more often than is recommended,” said Stark State College President Para Jones. “All the public spaces, handrails, doorknobs—very careful cleaning. We have cleaning supplies in all offices and every day we all clean our own work spaces.”
The college continued the in-person classes for the undergrad and trade school programs that require face-to-face curriculum.
“For example we have a commercial drivers license program. We had to wait ‘til the state gave us guidelines for how to do that safely,” Jones said.
Jones said that as students are registering for the upcoming school year, many are requesting face-to-face interaction.
“What we did learn is that they want to come in. They want to talk to someone. They want to do a whole lot of those enrollment processes in person,” Jones said.
