Official SLCC Blog

Salt Lake Community College will participate in #GivingTuesdayNow, a special global day of giving during which the college aims to raise $10,000 on May 5 for its students who have been impacted by COVID-19. Giving Tuesday, recognized as the annual global day of giving, traditionally takes place on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. This year, in the midst of COVID-19, #GivingTuesdayNow has been planned to bring awareness to the needs of the nonprofit sector and to generate support for those affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. SLCC students and families include some of the most vulnerable in our community, and they have been deeply impacted by COVID-19. The college created its  Students in Crisis Fund  to provide compassionate assistance to students in an emergency. To date, hundreds of students have applied to the fund. The top five needs, in order of request, include: 1.      Rental assistance 2.      Unemplo...

Kelsey Pesta (l-r), Jeffrey West, Darren Marshall and Jillana AhLoe, wearing the new SLCC masks. Salt Lake Community College is now offering cloth masks and will soon distribute face shields to employees who are being or will be required to work on campus during the pandemic. The masks, numbering in the hundreds, were designed and manufactured by SLCC’s Fashion Institute employees and students. The shields, also in the hundreds, are being manufactured by SLCC employees and students in the plastics and composites labs at the college’s Westpointe Workforce Training & Education Center. Masks are currently available for pickup through the Parking Services window in the Gunderson Building Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. Some face shields should become available at the same location within the next few days.

Some of the STEM Learning Resources tutors and staff. Salt Lake Community College's Department of STEM Learning Resources had to completely alter its traditional services for the semester – a normally “high-touch” delivery system where tutors give students face-to-face, individualized assistance. “This public health emergency has forced us to rethink how our services can be adapted to an online environment,” says Jose Crespo, director of SLCC’s STEM Learning Resources. “We have taken as much action as possible to offer continued academic support where possible, such as moving previously in-person workshops to an accessible online modality as quickly as possible. Tutors have been concerned about students being supported, especially now that added stress and problems might have arisen for most of our students. In this regard, I am happy to say that tutors have been flexible and eager to help in any way they can.” All of STEM Learning Resources’ tutors were put at the d...

ESL associate dean Dr. Maria Ammar working closely with students under normal circumstances. Four English as a Second Language instructors – Teresa Stillo Ramirez, Valerie Burgoyne, Matt Wilson and Betsy Bierer – have been figuring out how to take highly-interactive courses in the classroom to a virtual environment. “I have tried to create a workspace in which I can stand to as to mimic my normal classroom style, in which I mostly stand and circulate around the room,” says Stillo Ramirez, who teaches three ESL courses. “Many of my students are immigrants, refugees and some international students, who have to navigate many real-world social and cultural hurdles even as they are suddenly forced to navigate the virtual educational world. Some of them had difficulties logging in to the system and navigating Canvas.” Help has come from outside of SLCC. “Some of the resources I use for vocabulary and grammar building have made their premium subscriptions free to teachers until...

People & Workplace Culture (PWC) Virtual Office Hours PWC is hosting several sessions every week to provide professional development and support during this unique challenge of COVID-19. We are grateful for the sense of community and strength of our SLCC campus community. Please make sure to download the WebEx application first from https://slcc.webex.com/ . Contact Technical Support for assistance with this download as needed. If you need ADA accommodations, please contact Jill Tew, HR, jill.tew@slcc.edu . Monday, April 27 12:45 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Drop-in Yoga Kadee Willie, Personal Trainer, Wellness Program Meeting number (access code): 928 833 553 Meeting password: XtAMNYCF362 Join Meeting This session runs every Monday through May 4, 2020. *** *** Wednesday, April 29 9–9:45 a.m. Drop-in Yoga Kadee Willie, Personal Trainer, Wellness Program Meeting number (access code): 920 979 857 Meeting password: cGvuS4mWg73 Join Meeting This...

Dennis O'Reilly. Fortunately, SLCC’s School of Applied Technology & Technical Specialties kept most of its classes going, despite traditionally relying on face-to-face labs for areas like welding, aviation maintenance , electronics and emergency medical technician. “Our faculty members have worked hard to create videos and use other technologies to provide students with course materials using remote delivery,” says Gary Cox, the school’s interim dean. “Anecdotally, I would say that students are having more contact with their teachers than before the transition to remote teaching.” Students, he added, will eventually get back to the labs and then need to demonstrate what they’ve learned from their homes during the pandemic once it is over. Dennis O’Reilly is used to getting his, and his students’, hands dirty in his Automotive Automatic Transmissions lab in a big garage-like setting on SLCC’s Miller Campus, using actual cars and engines, with actual grease and grim...

Salt Lake Community College is proud to announce it will celebrate its graduates’ grit and achievements in an online ceremony posted on the school’s website starting June 26.   “Although our commencement ceremony will look different this year, it will never diminish the respect and pride I have in our 2020 graduating class,” said SLCC President Deneece G. Huftalin. “I am in awe of the power of their collective minds and hearts as they enter the workforce or their next educational journey having experienced such a tumultuous time. I have no doubt that the empathy, perspective and innovative thinking they have developed will situate them as confident community leaders who will imagine new ways of work and life with an emphasis on the public good.” Commencement is typically a cherished occasion at SLCC, honoring the extraordinary accomplishments and successes of its students at a large ceremony held at the Maverik Center. Given the importance of public health guidel...

Kadee Willie, Personal Trainer and Yoga Instructor, Wellness Team A lot of Salt Lake Community College employees have expressed a desire to have access to more tools to help them manage stress in these difficult times. The college’s People & Workplace Culture team (Wellness Team, Human Resources and Staff Development) and Center for Student Health and Counseling departments have assembled several resources and contact information below based on questions employees asked in a recent survey. If someone is feeling stressed from trying to balance work and provide childcare, where can they seek help? Answer: There are several resources available to employees who are experiencing stress at this time. ·       The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers Counseling Resources and Work-Life Balance Resources. The number is:   866-750-1327  or online click here . ·       SLCC’s Wellness Program offers m...

Today's virtual classroom: assistant professor Lyndsay Fait's occupational therapy assistant students. Turns out a $15 sheet of wallboard from Home Depot and a $20 sheet of sticky laminate from Amazon works in a pinch to teach students about respiratory anatomy and ventilator functions. Faculty and staff in Salt Lake Community College's Health Sciences division have been coming up with myriad ways to adjust to remote learning in a time of pandemic. Respiratory Therapy program coordinator Brandon Andersen says losing lab time while trying to learn how to use a ventilator is difficult, so he also reached out to the company Xlung, which has a ventilator simulation program for a monthly fee. “Xlung wanted to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic and, after hearing about our situation, they granted all the students free access through June to their entire program,” Andersen says. “These programs will allow me to create specific simulation models with patient types and...

As we draw to the close of the 2020 Spring Semester, the Student Association Senate would like to thank the students of Salt Lake Community College for the courage with which they overcame this unorthodox semester. We realize this ordeal has been taxing and we commend you for your perseverance. In these uncertain times, the best way to ensure your success is to continue to invest in yourself. As Malcom X once said “Education is the passport for the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”   As your Student Senate, it is our responsibility to make sure your voices are heard. Over the past few months we have pushed forward with this goal by championing a college wide Sustainability Initiative, promoting dialogue about the ERA(Equal Rights Amendment), voicing your concerns about the rise in tuition, continuously being an advocate for the students in regards to parking policies, and joining with the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs to ensur...