CHICOPEE – Chicopee’s own Elms College is feeling the effects of COVID-19, according to President Harry Dumay. Enrollment is down for the 2021 academic year, but Dumay states, “It’s lower than we were anticipating, but that’s similar to all of our peer institutions in the area or nationwide.”

Elms has had to make many changes to support students returning to campus this fall, as noted by Dumay. Students who returned to campus for the fall semester are living one to a room, leading to less crowded residence halls. Elms has also had to financially support the costs of purchasing PPE for staff and students, installing plexiglass in buildings, implementing hand sanitizer stations across campus and offering COVID-19 testing to students and employees.

Dumay acknowledged the negative impact the pandemic has had on Elms College, but he also highlighted the positive outcomes it has had.

"I think there are aspects in which it has affected us positively in the sense of it has forced the college from an educational model perspective to provide a lot more flexibility to our students,” he said.

Due to the pandemic, Elms is offering students in person classes, remote classes and a combination of both. Dumay referred to this as “Elms Flex” and spoke of how students are now able to continue their education at Elms from anywhere in the country.

"The students are really enjoying having the flexibility as well as the safety measures that the college has put into place,” said Dumay.

According to Dumay, 50 percent of Elms’ usual residence hall population is living on campus this year along with 65 percent of students participating in some in-person classes. Many local universities, such as UMass Amherst, chose only to have remote classes unless in-person learning was necessary.

The UMass website states that, “Only essential labs, studios, performance, and hands-on courses” would be offered in-person this semester.  

Elms went back to their core mission, along with watching many nationwide COVID updates, when deciding to offer students the option of in-person learning this se    mester.

"Elms College educates a diverse group of women and men in a nurturing and vibrant learning environment. We thought that the best way to provide this vibrant and nurturing environment to the best extent possible is to do that in person,” said Dumay.

With safety precautions in place, such as masks and social distancing, Elms has been able to continue to operate safely so far. Dumay acknowledged that they have had two positive COVID cases confirmed out of approximately 3,300 to 3,500 tests distributed this semester.

“If you think about that that’s a rate of less than one per 1,000, so that’s very much in keeping with what we are seeing at other colleges and universities,” he said. “In all instances we’ve been able to immediately identify the contacts or the person who tested positive and ensure that they’re isolated and quarantined.”

With just about a month left in the semester, Elms College students are preparing to head home at Thanksgiving break. They will then finish the final few weeks with remote classes and final exams. Students will not return to the Chicopee campus until late January and, according to Dumay, will be required to have re-entry COVID testing.

“We are ready to welcome students back in the Spring with the Elms Flex model improved from everything that we’ve learned from the Fall semester,” said Dumay.

Dumay said that Elms will be eliminating Spring Break this year in an effort to keep students on campus healthy.

“Students are strongly encouraged to remain on campus except for emergency travel, for going to work, or going to their clinical or practicum,” he said.

Students will also have the flexibility to continue remote classes or take in-person. The Spring semester will end normally in early May.

Looking ahead to the 2021 academic year, the Elms College Admissions Office is already at work recruiting students to campus. According to Dumay, this is the season where high school seniors start looking at colleges. Elms has already had a virtual open house in October, instead of their usual in-person open house, due to COVID.

“We are receiving and admitting students and students are already depositing to Elm’s College in the fall,” said Dumay.