Amid the recent spread of COVID-19 in the United States, Claremont McKenna College has confirmed plans for the rest of the semester regarding online classes and required departures from campus.
Like CMC, Pitzer College and Pomona College have decided to move classes online for the remainder of the academic year. Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College have moved to online classes at least until mid-April, and will reevaluate later this semester.
Students at all the Claremont Colleges must leave campus by March 23 (Pomona and Scripps students must leave by March 18). For students who strongly feel they need to remain on campus, the colleges have provided a form to fill out to petition to stay.
The Forum has compiled the information available to this point and made a step-by-step guide to help students navigate the process.
Before you leave:
Dining:
Frary Dining Hall (Pomona) will be open for Claremont Colleges students through March 22, 2020.
Collins will be open March 23, 2020.
Move-out Process:
Fill out the COVID-19 Response Student Registry, which must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Saturday, March 14.
Register for storage pods using the SPRING CLOSING 2020 Form and FALL MOVE-IN 2020 Form.
All students must move out of the residence halls and Student Apartments by Monday, March 23 (5 p.m.).
Please submit a Check-Out Confirmation form AFTER you have finished packing and are ready to vacate your room.
International Students:
There will be drop-in hours at International Place on Thursday and Friday between 1:30 and 5:00 p.m.
Make sure your Form I-20 has a travel signature that was signed after Sept. 1, 2019.
If you need a new travel signature, you may drop off your document at International Place at any time during business hours. Please note that it will take up to 48 hours to return the Form I-20 to you.
After you leave:
Classes: alternative distance format, beginning March 30 until the end of the semester (May 15); All undergraduate Claremont Colleges are moving their courses to virtual formats as well. CMC’s Office of the Registrar has also sent out an updated set of academic regulations for Spring 2020.
The deadline to drop a class without record has been moved to 11:59 p.m. March 30.
The voluntary withdrawal deadline has been moved to 11:59 p.m. May 6.
The policy for Credit/No-Credit grading had changed. Students interested in this option should consult their professors.
Support resources on campus: academic advising, Soll Center advising, success consultants, peer tutoring, Center for Writing and Public Discourse, Murty Sunak QCL meetings and other programs online or to an alternative distance format.
Living arrangements: Students can petition to remain on campus for an extended period if they:
have a home address in a country with a level 2, 3, or 4 U.S. travel advisory
have a documented health condition that puts them at risk for travel
live in a home community that poses a serious health risk
have another compelling reason (considered case by case)
Not all petitions will be approved. Every effort will be made to assist students to identify an off-campus location if they are unable to return home.
Mailroom:
Unless prior arrangements have been made, packages that arrive for students who are no longer on campus will be refused/returned subject to storage availability.
Please avoid sending packages to the mailroom unless you are on campus to pick them up when they arrive.
ASCMC has been collecting many student concerns and opinions, and decision-makers have taken student opinions into account, according to ASCMC President Johnson Lin.
His view is echoed by Cristi Kennedy, ASCMC’s chief ethics and procedural officer. Having been a part of the conversations, she trusts that they have done the best that they can.
“Just because it has not been explicitly mentioned so far does not mean they have been forgotten,” Lin said in an interview. “They have plans and policies for just about everything that you can think of.”
CMC has put considerable thought into addressing needs from low-income students, according to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Dianna Graves. Financial aid recipients are mostly likely to qualify for emergency funding and additional support from the college, she said.
“Requests for financial support for storage and flights home may be submitted through a section in the registry where students can indicate personal, financial or other challenges,” Graves said in response to questions on emergency funding. “We will assess and evaluate those on a case-by-case basis.”
The administration has included international students in its decisions and is aware of the effects of travel restrictions, according to Chrystal Orozco, intermediate director of International Place of The Claremont Colleges.
CMC is “in constant communication with me in regard to the complexity of immigration regulations, making sure that they are not missing anything in regard to international students,” said Orozco, primary designated school official for CMC international students.
ASCMC is communicating concerns about Class of 2020 senior theses to the administration and focusing on what ASCMC can do to make seniors’ last few days on campus memorable from the student activities perspective.
“We should be careful not to spread any misinformation or make any assumptions,” Lin said.
ASCMC strongly encourages CMC students to submit their questions via the Google form; they will be directly addressed by the dean of students during tonight’s livestream at 8 p.m.