Looking back on this past year at Danville Area Community College, the number one topic and hurdle continued to be: COVID. But president Dr. Stephen Nacco says that thanks to the attitude of both the faculty AND the students, things worked out okay.
Dr. Nacco says, sure, there were some good additions to the DACC team in 2021, such as the hiring of Dr. Carl Bridges as Vice-President of Academic Affairs. But more than anything, the entire campus pulled together to get through another tough year, by simply doing what had to be done.
AUDIO: The faculty and staff at DACC deserve a big pat on the back for holding it together, for keeping us going, for keeping enrollment really from dropping to any significant amount. But then, total applause for the students. Because the students understood that they could be part of this on campus learning experience if they’d just adhere to the rules.
Those rules included wearing masks and getting tested if not vaccinated.
AUDIO: They’ve done it. They’re doing it, they’re going to continue to do the same thing in the spring. We’re going to be running as usual as a college. The cooperation we saw in the fall, we saw that students voted with their feet, they came back, they came to class. Whether it’s the middle college students who are in high school, and then are here at DACC to get a head start toward college; it’s the dual credit ones, same thing, they’re taking college credits; and then the regular college students.
And as Dr. Nacco has already talked about, some great new things in 2022 include the program with Southern Illinois, where six different programs at DACC can turn into a Bacholors Degree with an online year at SIU, and the new certificate and Associate’s Degree barber programs coming this summer.
