In the week since WACAC leadership last communicated about how COVID-19 would be affecting our work, the world has dramatically changed. Secondary schools and colleges have moved instruction online, recruitment and yield travel has been canceled, and I write this to you from San Francisco, where a “shelter in place” order was enacted for six Bay Area counties at 12:01 a.m. on March 17 – restricting movement for a population of 6.7 million people to only the most essential tasks. We are witness to unprecedented times.
Given these events, WACAC leadership has made the following difficult decisions on behalf of the membership:
- Canceled the two remaining Share, Learn, Connect (SLC) conferences to be held at Chapman and Santa Clara Universities
- Canceled the suite of spring college fairs to be held mid-April through May 2 (with a hope to reschedule some subset of programs in the late summer/early fall)
- Are in the process of making full refunds to all registrants for each event; we ask for your patience as we work through this major administrative task.
We are now engaged, of course, in conversations about our Annual Conference and related college fair scheduled for May 27-29 in Long Beach. When there is news to share on the fate of those events, we will be back in touch.
In these times of seemingly perpetual crisis, I want to express my gratitude for a stellar group of colleagues who have juggled their day jobs, families, and volunteer responsibilities with grace and flexibility. It takes a village of volunteers (and 1.5 staff members!) to keep the WACAC machine running, and we are only weathering the current situation due to the work of Marie Bury, Deanna Smith Kilgour, Marc McGee, David Mills, Phil Moreno, Keith Sanpei, Herbie Walker, and Dewey Wilmot, as well as countless other SLC and college fair site chairs who have leapt into action.
While it’s impossible to predict what’s to come, I am heartened by the dedication and resolve of the professionals in our field. I see collaboration occurring online, dramatic advocacy on behalf of our (bewildered) students, and kindness from our members towards leadership grappling with impossible decisions. Thank you for your continued support as we all work to navigate this evolving reality together.
Lauren Cook, WACAC President
San Francisco, CA
March 17, 2020
Dear WACAC Conference Team Member:
I am scheduled for the WACAC Conference in Long Beach in late May. I went to a great deal of trouble to get the school district I am employed through to okay the registration fee. Unfortunately, they are not able to fund any conferences beyond the current school year at this time. I fully understand the need to postpone the WACAC conference in Long Beach, CA, but would respectfully like to request a refund of my $250. registration fee. Thank you so much for your assistance with this matter.
Rhonda, I’ve contacting the WACAC Executive Assistant about this and she should be following up with you.
Thank all of you! Have colleges communicated with you about students’ grades for Spring 2020? If, as Gov. Newsom said today, that schools will be closed until Fall, how will kids get them to the colleges? Also, recommendations-same issue.
Appreciate your support!
Hi Susan,
Colleges are starting to send out communication now about how they might handle spring grades… as you can imagine, their first priority was getting out admission decisions. I know our state institutions are working on this issue and I hope we’ll have some statements by the end of the month. Stay tuned!
Lauren
Thank you to Lauren and all of WACAC leadership and members for keeping us all informed, supported, and resourced.
Hello, I’m a high school counselor who was planning on attending your annual conference in Long Beach, would it be possible for those sessions to be offered via Zoom or any other way to do it virtually? That way we don’t miss out on the valuable information l.
Thanks for the question, Daisy! If we are unable to hold the conference (and we hope to have news on that within the next week), we will be investigating other ways to get professional development to our members. We may be able to make session slides available, as well as some limited virtual content – most pressing would be events required by our Bylaws, such as our Spring Membership Meeting. The situation is currently quiet fluid, but we’ll be in touch as more firm plans develop.
Hi Lauren,
Thank you for staying on top of things for all of us. I’m wondering if WACAC & NACAC would be able to ask the federal government and CA to re-open FAFSA and the CA Dream ACT for families who now need financial aid to complete it. With this global economy plumb, I think many families who didn’t think they needed it, now may think they need it.
I’m also wondering if WACAC and NACAC can ask the 4 year colleges to waive College Board and ACT test requirement for the fall admission requirement. Even if these companies plan to offer make-up test dates for the cancelled ones, what about all the students who couldn’t register for a test for whatever reason. This can widen the equity gap.
Public secondary school students are missing out on learning during school closure time b/c there’s no tech support that can provide online at home learning. This also links to another level of equity issues. They may not have the parental guidance nor the equipment for it.
I’m not sure who to share these thoughts with, so appreciate your attention and passing it to whoever you think it’s appropriate. Thank you. Stay healthy.
Serena, these are great questions and requests. I’ve passed them on to NACAC, given that advocacy on this scale probably best comes from our national organization. WACAC leadership will discuss as well to see if there are places where we could augment any of their potential efforts.
Any updates on whether the conference will take place or be canceled? There are already huge delays in issuing refunds for a lot of canceled events, waiting to see how things will turn out may end up creating a bigger problem further down the line (it’s a really big chunk of money to not get back for weeks, if not months). I’d support moving the conference online if that’s an option (synchronous format, with reduced registration fee or partial refund for those of us who already paid).
Wei-Li, we did announce the conference cancelation on Monday – you can check out the announcement on the Rapid Response webpage, as well as the FAQs about refunds and all the rest embedded in the announcement: https://www.wacac.org/resources/rapid-response/
For some reason I didn’t get an email about the cancellation so I appreciate your response.