Dear Faculty and Staff,

I had been working on something to send out as we “mostly” tie up this semester. But I watched our Commencement and thought — that says it all. Thanks to all of you, each and every department, that have contributed to help our students get to this point. It hasn’t been easy. In fact, it has been damn hard work. But we are mostly there. I say mostly because we still have some that are awaiting guidance to let us totally finish up. But even so, graduation night was a time to celebrate. The ceremony was great, and students, families, faculty and staff had an opportunity to “be in the moment.”

We still have a way to go. I can’t give you any answers as to the next step. That is dependent on the Governor’s guidance and the Illinois Department of Public Health. Just know that we are ready to move, even incrementally, as we are given the go-ahead. Each step will be taken with concern for the safety of all. But flexibility is still the key to our success.

As we wait for the yellow and green lights, just know that each and every one of you are appreciated. We have kept our eyes on the goal post — and that is getting our students through. We are doing everything imaginable, and I don’t use that term lightly. Your imagination, creativity and dedication made our ceremony tonight possible, and kept the hopes of those to come alive.

For those of you leaving for a summer break, know we are grateful. For those who remain, we still have work to do, but I know you are up to the challenge. I can’t yet tell you what fall will hold, and I can’t tell you when we will all be together again. But I can tell you that the graduation ceremony Friday was just one step in our moving forward to take care of students.

Thanks for just being the heart of what is — Lincoln Land Community College.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President

Dear LLCC Family,

First, I hope this finds everyone well. I know we all have our own personal challenges dealing with this unprecedented time. I wanted to check in with you as we head toward the last stretch of spring semester. It has been incredible seeing the innovation and dedication of our faculty and staff. Some faculty have shared snippets of their courses and demonstrated that creativity abounds. Staff are finding all kinds of ways to connect with students and keep them engaged. Administrators are trying to stay on top of the seemingly daily policy changes from the state, the feds, and our many accrediting and approval bodies. It is taking the efforts of all of us to get our students across the finish line.

As I talk with faculty and staff, I have been reminded that these last few weeks are a challenge for keeping students motivated in good times. Our current situation will only serve to increase that challenge. This is again where creativity and purposeful connections will go a long way. Most courses can be completed on time. Unfortunately, we do not have the answers as to when we will be able to complete those courses that will still require some face-to-face/hands-on activities. Just know, and let students know, we are developing plans on how to see those students through to completion as soon as that is possible.

The good news is that we plan to celebrate everyone’s effort with a commencement ceremony, albeit virtual. Student services and PRM are planning our event, including recognition of every student who plans to graduate, and release that video on May 15 – the originally scheduled date for graduation. It is an ambitious undertaking, but certainly something to look forward to.

We also hope to have a portion of our employee recognition event in virtual mode. HR and PRM plan to launch a week of celebration for employee anniversaries and retirements. We hope this can take place beginning May 5. The awards portion will be delayed until fall.

In the meantime, we are working on alternate course scheduling and preparing for the inevitable increase in online and hybrid courses for at least summer and fall. We certainly hope our campus will be able to slowly reopen in the not too distant future, but know this must be done safely and within any forthcoming guidelines. I would like to say we can get back to normal, but the reality is that we do not know what future “normal” will look like.

So, I am reaching out to let you know that each and every area is doing its best to take care of our students, while working to keep our faculty and staff safe, and to make sure our business operations are not interrupted. We do not have a map for this. However, we clearly have a college full of faculty and staff who are up to the many challenges that lie ahead.

Continue to take care of yourselves, your family and your friends.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President

Dear Lincoln Land Family,

As we find ourselves in the second week of operating Lincoln Land Community College remotely, I want to share with everyone the College’s current plans for the end of this semester and beyond. More changes and challenges will surely come, so flexibility will be the operative word for the foreseeable future.

Given Governor Pritzker’s latest stay at home order, LLCC will continue remote operations through at least April 30. All classes (with the exception of those with lab/clinical requirements) will complete the semester on schedule in the current remote format. The Vice President of Academic Services is working with the faculty and academic deans to plan for completion of those lab/clinical courses with the additional requirements, and he will share those plans as soon as possible. We are being flexible and creative, but in many cases our actions are dictated by accrediting, licensing or certifying agencies. We continue dialogues with those agencies and have received approval for alternative deliveries in some disciplines.

In short, the vast majority of our classes should be completed within the normal semester, and we continue to look for remote/online options that might be effective and will help students who still need lab or clinical experience to complete as soon as is safely possible.

Unfortunately, LLCC will not have our regularly scheduled May graduation. We know this is an important event, and I assure you that we will have some sort of celebration for graduates – more to come on how and when.

I know everyone is being overwhelmed with emails and messages as you try and take care of school, home, work and yourselves. So, in an effort not to add to that burden, I am limiting my communications just to sharing broad reaching information.

Day-to-day operational news will come from the experts: course communications and assistance from faculty, deans and our Academic VP; student service news, guidelines and assistance from success coaches, financial aid, records, admission and Center for Academic Success staff working with the VP of Student Services.  Our human resource and business offices are sending regular communications regarding any changes in policy/procedure we are implementing in order to better support employees as we continue to operate in uncharted territory.  IT is managing help desk requests, and public relations is maintaining updates on the website while also getting information out to our communities. The Foundation continues to seek resources to help students with emergent needs.

The bottom line is although not physically together, we are still fully operational and have numerous resources to support our faculty, staff and students. Students should continue to check our website, LLCC email and texts regularly for updates. Faculty, staff and administration should check LincIn daily for new information and to see how some of our staff are creatively managing work, families and play right now.

Continue to take care of yourselves and your families.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President
Lincoln Land Community College

Faculty, staff and administration,

I wanted to send a note to thank you all. I just had a second check-in yesterday with the cabinet, and all reports are good. It is absolutely amazing what all of you have been able to accomplish in a week’s time. Of course there were some issues here and there, but we had a remote college working today! We will continue to address those issues of which we are aware and still have a new set of classes to launch today, but I just wanted to stop and take the opportunity to remind us all of what a great faculty, staff and administration LLCC has. You are truly awesome!!

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President
Lincoln Land Community College

I promised you an update. I am sure you all have heard about, and likely read, the Governor’s Executive Order. We have reviewed that and feel that our decisions and operational changes are in line with the Order. As I mentioned in correspondence last week, we are officially operating remotely as of Friday evening, March 20. From this point forward (at least through April 7) only essential personnel will be on campus. Those staff have been identified and will be able to be on campus Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to noon. This is only for operations that are required to take care of business that cannot be done remotely — like checking mail for invoices, payroll — and then that evening to sanitize areas occupied that day. Police will be on duty, and maintenance will make sure our facilities are in order. We will work with other essential needs as they evolve. If there is an emergency need for you to return, and you have not been identified as an essential employee, please work through your supervisor and cabinet member to get approved and to notify our police chief. We want to provide a safe work environment for those who will need to be onsite.

For more specific information and assistance please go to the college webpage www.llcc.edu and click on COVID-19 College Update. There are pages for faculty and staff, and one for students. These will be updated regularly. Please check LincIn for daily news, and we ask that you continue to send that news as you have in the past. This is a way for us all to stay connected to one another. Those connections will be extremely important for maintaining our college as a community.

Get some rest, and take a deep breath. We all dive in today. There has been an amazing amount accomplished in a week. Your cooperation and your efforts are greatly appreciated. Even so, we know there will be some challenges. Please exercise compassion and patience with our students and each other as we go through a bit of a learning curve. For at least the next week there will be a lot of demands on all of us as we find a “new normal.”

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President
Lincoln Land Community College

You will get a much more detailed communication today after the cabinet meets to “finalize” our plans. I put that in quotes because this is such a fluid situation, and because putting a college into remote is a steep learning curve for all of us. Again, we greatly appreciate all of the efforts that you have made this week to make this happen and to take care of our students. As I have let you know, we have very quickly been moving staff into remote work mode. We plan to have that concluded this evening. As staff has gone remote, our custodial staff has worked hard to sanitize spaces. We have also been working on a “go to/how to” reference for our website for you and for students. This will be a “one stop” FAQ resource that will organize the many communications you have received regarding future operations and will be updated regularly.

More to come!

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President
Lincoln Land Community College

I want to sincerely thank all of you for your efforts this week to keep our college operations underway, so that we can take care of our students and also take care of you. This is a challenging time for all of us. The most challenging part is predicting the future. We do not know how long we will have to adapt operations or how restrictive our lives will become. This is all unprecedented for our lifetime, and we are having to remain fluid and flexible with everchanging governmental mandates and recommendations.

To the maximum extent possible, we are putting processes in place so that college faculty, staff and administrators can work at home. We will still have essential services that will need to report on a schedule to be determined, so that college operations can continue. Each division is working with their staff to determine what those needs will be and to determine essential support. The vast majority of support services will be remote. However, we will still need to schedule designated staff to ensure that our basic operating activities continue. The cabinet is working diligently to finalize what those needs will be and how often they need to occur. We hope to have most of those protocols in place by close of business tomorrow. In the meantime, many faculty and staff have already been able to make that transition. That has been important to reduce personal contact for those who we still need to be on campus. We greatly appreciate those who are still on site and particularly thank our facilities crew for working diligently to maintain a safe environment.

We ask that all faculty maintain contact with their students to guide them through these instructional changes. As previously announced, the College has extended spring break for students through this week. Beginning March 23, all instruction, including laboratory sessions, will be delivered online or through alternative formats to the extent possible until further notice. We are continuing to work on alternate options for courses where that is not currently possible. IT sent a message today with instruction on how to use Microsoft Teams. That app is simple to use and has been a great alternative to face-to-face meetings for staff and faculty.

Again, all of your efforts are appreciated. Our aspirations are to make sure we can meet the needs of as many students as is humanly possible. To that end, we also want you to know that we intend to make sure every employee will continue to be paid. Everyone’s lives are being disrupted, and we do not want you to have to also be worrying about income. Your energies are better spent taking care of your family, our students, each other and yourselves. I will be back in touch in the very near future regarding future actions and timelines where possible.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President
Lincoln Land Community College

Students, faculty and staff,

I want to assure you that the health, safety and well-being of our college community are our highest priorities. In light of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, our leadership team has been meeting and considering the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Lincoln Land Community College is taking the following preventative measures:

• For students, we will extend spring break by one additional week (March 16-22) for all classes.

• Though classes will not meet, the college will be open. Staff should report to work as usual.

• Faculty will work (either on campus or remotely) on ensuring that they will be able to instruct their students remotely beginning Monday, March 23. More information on preparing classes for adaptive modes of teaching will be provided.
• This week, faculty and staff are encouraged to remain in their workspaces as much as possible, practicing reasonable social distancing.
• Faculty and staff who have recently traveled to CDC identified high risk countries should speak to their supervisor and Human Resources for permission to work from home for a 14-day period of self-quarantine.

• Faculty and staff exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus are asked to contact their health care provider and follow their instructions. All employees who are feeling ill should take sick leave and stay home from work.

• All student travel and non-essential employee travel are suspended for the foreseeable future. Any previously approved employee travel must be resubmitted for consideration.

• The LLCC Child Development Center will remain open with regular business hours.

• LLCC Community Education classes are canceled until further notice.

• All activities involving community groups meeting on the LLCC campus or at any LLCC Outreach Center are canceled until further notice.

• A polling place for primary election voting on March 17 will be open in Montgomery Hall.

• Bistro Verde will be closed until further notice.
• The Midwest Athletic Conference has canceled all softball and baseball (including the LLCC Loggers teams) games until April 1.
• Quiznos is the lower level of Menard Hall will be closed this week.

Although no classes will be held this week, the college will be open as we prepare for adaptive modes of teaching through the duration of this health crisis. Our facilities staff is taking extra measures to ensure a clean and sanitary environment.

Additional communications will be sent as warranted, and updates will be posted on www.llcc.edu.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding as we work together to continue to provide a safe learning environment for our students.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President, Lincoln Land Community College

Students, faculty and staff,

I want to assure you that the health, safety and well-being of our college community are our highest priorities. In light of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, our leadership team has been meeting and considering the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Effective immediately, Lincoln Land Community College will take the following preventative measures:

• For students, we will extend spring break by one additional week (March 16-22) for all classes.

• Though classes will not meet, the college will be open. Staff should report to work as usual.

• Faculty will work (either on campus or remotely) on ensuring that they will be able to instruct their students remotely beginning Monday, March 23. More information on preparing classes for adaptive modes of teaching will be provided.
• Next week, faculty and staff are encouraged to remain in their workspaces as much as possible, practicing reasonable social distancing.
• Faculty and staff who have recently travelled to CDC identified high risk countries should speak to their supervisor and Human Resources for permission to work from home for a 14-day period of self-quarantine.

• Faculty and staff exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus are asked to contact their health care provider and follow their instructions. All employees who are feeling ill should take sick leave and stay home from work.

• All student travel and non-essential employee travel are suspended for the foreseeable future. Any previously approved employee travel must be resubmitted for consideration.

• The LLCC Child Development Center will remain open with regular business hours.

• LLCC Community Education classes are canceled until further notice.

• All activities involving community groups meeting on the LLCC campus or at any LLCC Outreach Center are canceled until further notice.

• A polling place for primary election voting on March 17 will be open in Montgomery Hall.

• Bistro Verde will be closed until further notice.
• The Midwest Athletic Conference has canceled all softball and baseball (including the LLCC Loggers teams) games until April 1.

Although no classes will be held next week, the college will be open as we prepare for adaptive modes of teaching through the duration of this health crisis. Our facilities staff is taking extra measures to ensure a clean and sanitary environment.

Additional communications will be sent as warranted, and updates will be posted on www.llcc.edu.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding as we work together to continue to provide a safe learning environment for our students.

Charlotte Warren, Ph.D.
President, Lincoln Land Community College