NWC COVID-19 March 13 update

Posted: March 13, 2020

As Northwest College works to implement our ongoing strategies to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our community, we wish to thank you for your flexibility and patience as we work through this rapidly evolving public health situation. Federal and State response is changing by the hour and the College is following this situation very closely. Northwest College is committed to our mission of being Student Centered and providing high quality education while ensuring the safety of our students, employees and the community during this time.

• Spring break is now being extended through March 22 for all NWC students; classes will resume Monday, March 23. All college and student services will be available. NWC employees can return to work as usual on Monday, March 16, unless prior arrangements have been made with your supervisor.
• The College will remain open and operational (at all locations) for now. For everyone’s health and safety, please do not come to campus if you are ill.
• The College is asking students and employees who have traveled by airplane or cruise ship in the past 14 days to consider self-quarantine for 14 days; please contact us so we can make sure you have the support you need to continue your studies or are working from home or otherwise seculded. We will work with you on a plan that works best for your situation.
• People at risk for serious illness from COVID-19 should follow the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html#who-is-higher-risk; this includes those who have or live with others who have serious chronic medical conditions.
• After spring break, academic coursework will continue in alternative formats (online, video or phone conferencing), so our students can continue their NWC education as unimpeded as possible. All in-person courses are already being converted to alternative formats; courses that cannot easily be converted will likely be rescheduled, modified, or canceled if some other sort of accommodation cannot be arranged. Please await instructions from your professors for important details about how to continue your spring 2020 classes going forward.
• All on and offsite College travel, events, and conferences for students and employees through March 22 are being canceled; the College will continue to assess and review activities scheduled for March 23 and after. Pay close attention to future NWC COVID-19 communications to get updates as the situation progresses.
• At this time, the College strongly discourages hosting or attending any large gatherings.

Students

• When you return from spring break, students staying on campus will be moved into single-occupancy rooms (if you are not in one already). You will not be charged extra for a single-occupancy room.
• Students on a meal plan will still be provided meals; the method of delivery may evolve as the situation progresses; make sure you continue to monitor your college email, the NWC COVID-19 website, and Trapper Alert texts to get the latest information.
• Your professors are working right now to transition as many in-person classes to an online format; you will be hearing from them directly with instructions for continuing your academic work this spring semester.
• Courses that would be difficult to transition to an online format are being reviewed now; pay attention to your college email for further details from your instructors.
• In order to better serve local populations throughout the course of the COVID-19 situation, local healthcare facilities have suspended all nursing and allied health clinicals in Powell, Cody, Lovell and Worland until further notice. 

Healthcare

Please continue to follow the CDC's recommendations regarding regular and thorough washing of your hands, keeping your hands away from your face, disinfecting/cleaning areas that are frequently touched, not coming into contact with individuals known to have or have been exposed to the illness, staying home if you are sick, etc. 

Local healthcare facilities are asking people who suspect they might be infected with COVID-19 to call ahead of time for instructions on how to proceed. People who are experiencing a fever, cough, or shortness of breath are directed to call the Powell Valley Healthcare hotline at 307-754-1242 or the Cody Regional Health hotline at (307) 578-2000 to speak to a professional about your symptoms and get further instructions.

NWC Pandemic Response Team

Please know that our team is working diligently to accommodate this temporary transition for our campus, and we will provide additional information as soon as possible. Please:

• read any communication from Northwest College thoroughly and completely; the answer you need may already be in the communication.
• if you have a question about specific classes, please email your instructor directly.
• if you have a question about work, please email your supervisor directly.
• if your questions are not urgent, we’d ask you to wait for further communication that may address your concerns.
• if you have an urgent question that you don’t know whom to send it to, please send it to COVID-19@nwc.edu
• continue to monitor your campus email and/or https://nwc.edu/covid-19 for future updates.
• Finally, we ask that you try to understand how difficult it is to make these decisions and request your patience as we seek to make the best decisions possible to keep everyone in our community healthy and safe, while also doing our part to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We understand that there are many implications of these decisions, and we will be working through them and following up with our campus and our communities in future communications.

***Note. Previous communications from NWC used the word "isolate" and "isolation" instead of "quarantine" and have become aware of the difference in definition between the two. We should have used the word quarantine. While isolation serves the same purpose as quarantine, it’s reserved for those who are already sick. It keeps infected people away from healthy people to prevent the sickness from spreading. (credit: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/covid-19-understanding-quarantine-isolation-and-social-distancing-in-a-pandemic/.)