Nicholls testing system to become a “virtual campus”

Nicholls President Jay Clune sent an email to students, facility and staff on Sunday evening informing all of new measures Nicholls is taking to keep students safe. Starting on Monday, all lecture-based classes and most labs will be online. Nicholls is asking students not to congregate and practice social distancing. Students will still be allowed to live on campus, and dining will be offered. President Clune asking faculty to accelerate the movement of remaining face-to-face classes into an online environment.

On Tuesday, March 17, as part of a drill, Nicholls temporarily move additional operations entirely online. This includes many administrative, academic, and student services. Nicholls will become a virtual campus capable of providing mission critical services utilizing a remote service platform.

It is anticipated all employees will return to work on Wednesday for regular on-ground operations.

Nicholls is also allowing employees who have children at home due to school closures, to bring their children with them as safety permits to gather work materials ahead of the virtual test run.

Read Dr. Clune’s email to students in full here:

Dear Nicholls Students,

As we continue to monitor and adjust to the spread of COVID-19, I want to keep your apprised of measures that I am taking to protect our campus community while continuing to deliver a high quality education to you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

By tomorrow morning, all of your lecture-based classes and most of your labs will be online. As further guidance comes from state and local health officials, we may have to further restrict access to campus, meaning all of your courses will move online. With that said, on Tuesday, March 17, as part of a drill, we will temporarily move additional operations at Nicholls entirely online. This includes many administrative, academic, and student services. This means that we will create a virtual campus capable of providing mission critical services utilizing a remote service platform. There may be some hiccups along the way, so please bear with us.

To help us with this transition and to better understand how we can help you, we are establishing a form on the nicholls.edu/emergency page for you to submit questions or concerns regarding your online class transition, as well as a FAQ that will hopefully answer many of your questions.

Many of you have expressed concerns about online test proctoring through ProctorU. We have negotiated a reduced price of $7 with ProctorU. We understand that paying for this service is an added burden, and for that I apologize. We are looking for ways to further reduce the costs for you.

For those of you who live on campus, dining services will still be offered. All administrative, academic and student services will remain available, either on campus or online. During this virus outbreak, we ask that students not congregate in large groups and follow the CDC guidelines for social distancing.

Look for further information in the coming days and continue to visit nicholls.edu/emergency for updates.

With Colonel Pride,

Jay Clune, President
Nicholls State University