With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Los Angeles County, Cal Poly Pomona was granted permission to move forward with online education through summer 2021, if necessary, as announced during the Oct. 4 Academic Senate meeting.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges granted CPP an exemption, meaning the university did not have to go through a curriculum review in order to continue online education. This is the same process that allowed the university to shift to virtual instruction last spring as well.
Provost of Academic Affairs Sylvia Alva’s announcement was aimed to prepare faculty for future online curriculum-based plans should that be necessary.
Alva said, “If they have plans to offer their programs online in the future, this is when they need to start working on those proposals and reviews of their programs to make sure they can do that well in the eyes of the regional accreditor because we don’t know if they’re willing to continue to grant an exemption in fall of 2021.”
As of writing this article, no decision has been made to whether the 2021 summer term will be held online.
It was also confirmed during the meeting that the university will be expanding on the new scheduling and registration program, CPP Connect, available January 2021.
As previously reported by The Poly Post, CPP Connect began as an appointment scheduling functionality intended to schedule tutoring and advising appointments and to create a way for students, faculty and administration to communicate students’ needs across the university.
Recently, the planner functions was launched that will allow students to register for classes and organize the roadmap, class scheduler and planning tool all onto one platform. It also added a connective studying tool for students to get classroom help.
The next launch phase will be introducing the new functions to ease registration for students.
“Some of the enhancements that we’re going to work on is that currently, the system does not account for co-requisites or prerequisites and that’s something we’re working with the vendor on because that’s really important,” said Cecilia Santiago-González, associate vice provost of strategic initiatives for student success.
The program will also be introducing new one-click registration.
“Just from a click of a button, students are going to be able to register,” said Santiago-González. “You don’t even have to go to Bronco Direct.”
According to Terri Gomez, associate provost for student success, equity and innovation, CPP
Connect aims to help students receive the help they need with registration, organization, and
course help all under one tool.
“It’s a tool for students to connect with each other and I think during this pandemic that is
particularly valuable,” said Gomez.
The next Academic Senate meeting is scheduled for Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. More information on
previous and upcoming meetings can be found https://www.cpp.edu/~senate/meetingschedule/
index.shtml.
(Feature image Georgia Valdes | The Poly Post)