Dear ACCHS Community,
Our sincerest thanks to our community for your support of each other and the school during this challenging time. Administration is working hard to address this crisis and mitigate any potential risks to students or patients, while supporting you in the programs, clinic, and working to support our community. This is a time of difficult decisions and rapid change. Please bear with us as we work hard to make what we hope are the best choices, given the current information available.
*** Please pay attention to your email for communications with the school, and forward and disseminate communications to classmates and instructors if you think may not be receiving them
As of Sunday, March 15, there are 338 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California. There are six reported deaths. Friday saw the first confirmed case among UC Berkeley student body. While testing is just starting to roll out across the state, models suggest that the actual number of cases is significantly higher but still in the beginning stages. While the relative quiet has led some to suggest that contagion is still low, leading public health officials are recommending everyone proceed as is transmissibility is a very real and likely possibility. We do know that rates of infection will increase in the weeks to come, and are working to take steps now to protect our community. This evening governor Newsom announced statewide measures aimed at addressing this crisis (https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1vAxRBpALPaxl). Please watch this press conference to familiarize yourself with the new policies and guidelines being implemented.
As we continue to monitor the current outbreak of COVID-19 via through the California Public Health Department and the Alameda County Public Health Department websites here and here. While at the Academy (or when in the general public), please adhere to the guidelines set forth by the WHO and CDC.
As a small institution we rely on our instructors, students and community to support academic programs and efforts. Please let us know if you have any other thoughts our questions. Thank you and please be safe.
In health and community,
Andres Bella, Acting President
(click tabs below for detailed information on a each topic)
The Academy will be scaling back in-person resources at the Academy facility. With heavy hearts, by order of Alameda county officials, we are announcing that the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences will close its doors beginning on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. You may view the “shelter in place” order here (http://acphd.org/media/559658/health-officer-order-shelter-in-place-20200316.pdf).
Last week the school applied for, and granted emergency waiver approval from ACAOM to initiate distance education for our MAcCHM program through the end of the term. We have reached out to all instructors to initiate this process, and asked them to communicate with students about courses and shift their curriculum to a “virtual” model right away. Some have already begun that work. This coming week all courses will be migrated to distance education or correspondence instruction.
To be clear: the expectation is that all courses will shift to an online or virtual environment. There is the very real possibility that this may continue through the end of the term.
In courses where this is prohibitive to learning, we will be working with instructors to reschedule a day of instruction to later this summer, once we’ve determined we can resume regular courses. We will be leaning heavily on support from our instructors during this period, to help usher this process and support student matriculation while we develop systems and best practices. In the meantime, we in administration would ask for your support in these efforts by organizing as cohorts and inquiring directly with instructors about class changes for the remainder of the term. Please be patient as this is new terrain for all of us, and stress and tension in the community is already very high. If you have any suggestions, expertise and availability to support these efforts, please reach out to our academic team directly.
The Academy will be cancelling future patient appointments and suspending live clinical training beginning 3/16/2020.
We will be meeting this week to reconfigure systems to shift clinic training to an online learning environment. We are asking students to please keep accurate, detailed records of missed shifts to support clinical administration in tracking your hours. The Academy has implemented this more lenient absence policy to accommodate students in their last weeks of the trimester.
An announcement will be made from clinical administration in the coming week regarding options for completing or reschedule your clinical internship hours in the coming weeks. The Academy will not be booking patient appointments until further notice.
