| NEWS | MCCCD from p 17 first reported by the State Press, ASU’s stu- dent-run newspaper. ASU’s online experience during the pandemic was horrendous for some stu- dents, the State Press reported in Decem- ber in an in-depth article headlined, “’Most of us are really, really suffering’: Students, faculty say semester was unsuccessful.” No firm decision has been made yet on district level for community college sports, but at Mesa Community College, the dis- trict’s largest college, sports are expected to begin as normal this coming fall, said MCC Thunderbirds spokesperson Wayne Block. MCC’s spring sports program took off slowly, impacted not just by pandemic but also by injured athletes, he said. He thinks next year should go well and expects the athletic department to spend the summer continuing its recruiting efforts. Told that the district expects most classes to be on- line in the fall, Block said that “on a per- sonal level, I hate to see that.” Leshinskie emphasized the colleges’ “award-winning faculty” and said students receive an “outstanding” quality of educa- tion, whether the classes are in-person, vir- tual, or some mix of the two. Asked if he thought virtual or online classes were as good as in-person classes, the provost would not say. He touted a new law that allows the colleges to offer some four-year degrees, which are flexible to the needs of students, some of whom may have strengths in “dif- ferent modalities.” The colleges have long offered virtual or online classes, and “we may not ever be” at the pre-pandemic level of in-person classes again, he said. Yet Leshinskie does see the district boosting its “in-person learning opportuni- ties” for the spring 2022 semester, he said, because the state is likely to be further along in its fight against COVID-19 by then. “Our primary motivation is to meet our students’ needs,” he repeated. Following the interview with Leshin- skie, the community college district re- leased the results of a student survey taken just before the spring 2021 semester ended. It states that 33 percent of students prefer Hickman’s from p 18 supervise him while he handled “danger- ous equipment.” The lawsuit states that the Department of Corrections has a “duty to provide a safe environment for inmates in its custody” and a “duty to monitor working conditions at private vendors that utilize prisoner la- bor.” It goes on to assert that the state has “had notice of the dangerous conditions at Hickman’s.” Joel Robbins, the attorney representing the inmates in all nine cases, declined to comment, citing the fact that the litigation is “ongoing.” in-person classes for the fall semester, 44 percent prefer online (with only a quarter of those preferring live virtual classes), and 23 percent prefer hybrid classes with both in-person and online components. Dasi Danzig, an MCCCD spokesperson, cautioned that “it really isn’t appropriate” to compare (as seems logical to do) the 33 percent student preference of in-person classes to the district’s offering of 19 per- cent in-person classes, because “there isn’t a one-to-one connection between what students reported to us and what we are of- fering in terms of modality.” Currently, students are registered for in- person classes at lower rates than for on- line classes, leaving the in-person classes only 29 percent full compared to the 67 percent full online classes. “While we are offering fewer in-person classes than online, if in-person classes were the higher demand, they would be filling at rates similar to or higher than on- line,” she said. The survey report also mentions that “unsuccessful completion” of classes (in- volving grades of D, F or Z), increased by 0.4 percent in spring 2020 compared to spring 2019. “While that may not seem like a big shift, it does represent over 21,000 grades,” the report notes. Meanwhile, another survey released by MCCCD showed ambivalence about re- turning to campus by 2,827 respondents, about a quarter of whom were resident or adjunct faculty, the rest being staff mem- bers. The survey says that while 68 per- cent of respondents “were neutral, comfortable, or extremely comfortable re- turning to the workplace,” it also shows that 87.9 percent of respondents would likely keep working remotely, if that were given as an option. Total enrollment for the spring semes- ter was down by as much as 17 percent, and the trend of shrinking enrollment is con- tinuing for the fall 2021 semester. Public K-12 schools, which are making decisions locally about the level of return to in-per- son classes, have also seen declining enroll- ment following the pandemic. Hickman’s Family Farms did not re- spond to a request for comment on the lawsuits. Neither did Supervisor Hickman or a spokesperson for the Arizona Depart- ment of Corrections. Hickman’s Family Farms was sued in 2019 by an inmate who lost her finger while working at an egg farm. The compa- ny’s chief financial officer blamed the worker for her injury. Phoenix New Times’ reporting on the incident prompted an Ari- zona Department of Occupational Safety and Health investigation. Another inmate, Michael Gerhart, also sued the company in 2019 after his hand was crushed in ma- chinery. 23 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES JUNE 24TH – JUNE 30TH, 2021
