Harding began using nontraditional,\u00a0 off-campus classroom options during the fall 2020 semester to adhere to social distancing guidelines, including locations such as College Church of Christ and the Keller Center (Family Dollar) on Race Avenue. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) said they are monitoring new areas due to the use of these new classroom spaces, as well as several harassment cases that occurred in the fall semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe changed a few things, though not so much with College Church, because that is a well-traveled path anyways, especially with Midnight Oil being over there,\u201d Craig Russell, director of (DPS), said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russell said they do not monitor College Church as closely because \u201cthey have a pretty extensive video surveillance security system,\u201d as well as their own resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith Family Dollar, it was a little bit different,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThey are just as close, less than a block from campus, but it was not really set up to be classroom space. We very closely are keeping an eye on it, and that\u2019s both during the day when we have students coming and going for class and in the evening when class is not meeting, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Due to the concern of safety on campus after the fall semester\u2019s harassment cases, DPS installed four cameras dedicated to monitoring the Keller Center at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A DPS officer is also posted outside the center during classroom changes throughout the day to ensure the students\u2019 surroundings are being watched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faculty teaching at the Keller Center and College Church of Christ are also in communication with DPS to ensure the students have an optimal educational experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cEverybody with large classes was trying to make it work,\u201d associate professor of Bible and ministry Dr. Kraig Martin said. \u201cEverybody did the best they could, and I thought it really commendable how teachers, students, administrators \u2014 everybody \u2014 really handled the situation. You just have to be flexible with that kind of thing.\u00a0It was an added obstacle, but I didn\u2019t think it unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DPS seems to be taking extra steps to ensure students\u2019 safety at these temporary classroom locations, despite it being a learning experience for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not aesthetically beautiful, but as far as utilitarian function, it\u2019s got everything you want,\u201d associate professor of Bible and ministry Dr. Lee Edwards said. \u201cWe were learning as time went on, and we learned as we went. And the people who were called on to help did a great job of helping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although these spaces are temporary, the University staff, professors and DPS employees are working to maintain a safe environment for students.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harding began using nontraditional,\u00a0 off-campus classroom options during the fall 2020 semester to adhere to social distancing guidelines, including locations such as College Church of Christ and the Keller Center…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":15561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15562,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15560\/revisions\/15562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}