On Monday March 29th from 11am to 12pm, Audrey Ellis, Assistant Director of Student Success Management, will be hosting a NECC Virtual Town Hall featuring Bill Heineman, Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs via Zoom to discuss the plans for the Summer and Fall 2021 semesters.
“We will focus on the types of courses NECC will be offering in the summer and fall 2021 semesters”, stated Heineman.
He further outlined, “There will be a brief presentation on this as well as some information about how other services for students might be changing during those terms.”
As part of this live event, students are encouraged to formulate and submit questions that they have, regarding the coming months at NECC, in advance. “There will be lots of time for student questions and a panel of NECC administrators, and myself, will do our best to answer those questions.”
Heineman further added in response to the upcoming agenda of the meeting. This type of platform has served as a communication tool, in reaching out to the college community since the onset of COVID-19 back in March of last year.
“We wanted to make sure that we covered as many communication modalities as possible, and we wanted our students to get the chance to have questions answered ‘live’ by the college leadership”, explains Ellis. “I make sure that the questions are being answered and that the correct panelist is answering each question.”
She further adds “With so much being online these days, it’s nice for students to still hear these important updates directly from our leadership team and in their own words.”
Spurred by the pandemic, innovation has had an important role in NECC’s approach in connecting with its student body.
“Playing a large role in making sure that our communication is comprehensive with our students, around the ongoing changes related to COVID-19, is of great importance and it made sense that I take on the role of moderator,” states Ellis.
“Students can submit their questions via Navigate – by filling out the Quick Poll, or by sending an email to aellis@necc.mss.edu with the subject line:’Town Hall Question’ and if they have other questions ‘live’, they can submit them and we will get through as many as we can in the hour,”instructs Ellis.
In looking forward to the upcoming meeting, Vice President Heineman offered two important take-aways that he hopes are made known to the students: “First, students will have more choices in the types of courses they can take in the fall semester than they had this year, especially in terms of courses that require regular meetings with their instructors and classmates. Second, that students should pay close attention to NECC communication of all types between now and September because conditions and plans could shift.”
“We have to continue to be flexible and expect possible changes,” explained Heineman; “We are going to do everything we can to minimize the disruptions such changes will cause for students but the uncertainty of the pandemic will still be a fact of life we all have to deal with.”
This one hour meeting will allow students to hear all of the updates directly from college leadership.
“Whether or not they’re able to watch the Town Hall live, they’re able to watch the recording if they have questions,” Ellis stated and she further elaborated, “We will record the meeting and post it on the NECC website once it is available and if there are interpreters requested, those will be included live and in the recording.”
To connect to the Virtual Town Hall from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Android device, please click this URL to join: https://zoom.us/j/91280965807 Passcode: 968631
