Dougherty County is the center of commerce for our part of Southwest Georgia. Albany Technical College is proud of the role that has been assigned to us. We take seriously our responsibility of providing an educated workforce for industry, commerce, and public service. We have been and continue to be a strong contributor to income generation for our community.

As with many Albany businesses and organizations, our campus is temporarily closed. We feel that we should do our part to flatten the curve for the transition of the COVID-19 virus. Consequently, all of our coursework is now being delivered online or in a web enhance / hybrid format. Our faculty is teaching these courses as they shelter at home. We understand, however, that a significant number of our lab and clinical courses can’t be completed online. The college has a plan to bring students back to campus a few at a time to complete the coursework. We will arrange to travel to public high schools in our service delivery area to assist their students in completing lab courses during the spring and if necessary, the summer. 

Starting in the Fall of 2019, Albany Tech divided most of our semester courses into two seven-week success terms. Dividing semesters was done partially to increase the number of intake and exit periods from three to five. I estimate that 40 percent of our students have completed and received their earned grades for 50 percent of their spring semester courses. We feel relieved that many of our non-graduating spring semester students will not need to come back to campus before the summer or fall term.

In conclusion, we have developed and will implement an enrollment recovery plan. The plan that we have developed will provide each of our students with a revised path to graduation. Career services is available to assist community employers in identifying graduating students to fill job vacancies. Adult education and academic affairs will invite their students back to a safe, clean campus, as soon as the crisis has ended. The economic development unit is poised to offer contract training and continuing education. Students applying for non-health programs during the summer semester will not be required to sit for the admissions test. The application fee has been waived for the summer and fall terms.

In short, we are doing what we can to grow enrollment, improve retention, and increase graduation. We will be there to meet the workforce needs of employers as soon as the community is open for business. Please contact me if you need more information. I can be reached at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.