Cancellations, Closings and Class Information

Cancellations, Closings and Class Information

Last updated: June 4, 2020

In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19), at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, the health and safety of our students, employees and visitors are a top priority. As a precautionary measure, HACC will post any campus closings, event cancellations or class changes on this page.

Campus Closings

Beginning March 16, all five HACC campuses were closed to students.
Even though the College is open, HACC’s five campuses will remain closed until Aug. 17. Students may register for a variety of classes offered either online or remotely during the summer sessions. Please note that this information is tentative and subject to change. These decisions were made to ensure we continue to keep you safe.
Only essential and approved employees will be allowed on the five campuses. Essential and approved employees include safety and security colleagues, some Office of Information Services and Technology (OIST) colleagues and some facilities colleagues.
Beginning March 16 and until we re-open, we will offer remote services to our students. These services include (but are not limited to) academic advising, assistance with financial aid, IT support and accessibility services.
On March 23, we began offering remote instruction to students taking credit courses. This will continue until we re-open the campuses.
Most HACC employees will work their regular work schedules March 16 until we return to campus. However, their job duties will be performed remotely.
It is important to note that the College is NOT closing. Instead, access to the campuses will be restricted to essential and approved employees, and we will provide remote instruction and remote services to our students. It will be “business as usual” for most HACC employees – but using remote resources.
As a result of COVID-19, HACC has put placement testing on hold. We are working with ACCUPLACER and examining options to resume testing as soon as possible. If you would like to receive a call about placement testing options when the College moves forward with a new plan, please contact a Welcome Center at 800-ABC-HACC.
All new student orientations scheduled for April will be rescheduled. HACC will contact students to set new dates.
According to the academic calendar, the College will be closed on May 25 for Memorial Day.
The College’s task force is finalizing its recommendations for fall 2020 and will share those with the president’s Cabinet during the week of June 8. Decisions about fall 2020 will be reported to the College community by June 15.

Class Changes

Please see your HACC email regarding any class changes.
After March 20, 2020, all classes at the Senator John. J. Shumaker Public Safety Center (PSC) will be postponed or canceled.
Due to the fact that we may have to extend the hands-on skills components of a number of spring 2020 classes and because we do not know how long the COVID-19 emergency will continue, we are planning to cancel the first six-week and 12-week summer classes for all classes outside of the School of Health Sciences. Health science classes that require the full 12 weeks to meet clinical experience requirements will continue as scheduled. For all other classes, we will rebuild the summer schedule to move classes into the eight-week and second six-week semesters. We also plan to move more classes online. Deans will work with faculty on reassigning classes in the new summer schedule.
Faculty are following the recommendations from clinical sites, and students will not be attending clinicals until further notice. The Nursing Program has received approval from the State Board of Nursing to move clinical experiences to simulation. Faculty have communicated the changes to current students.
Because students cannot currently attend lab sessions, many faculty members have created videos to assist with lab demonstrations. However, some hands-on classes will need to be completed once we return to campus. For details, please ask your professor.
The College understands that many students are concerned about the move to remote instruction. However, since classes continue via this new modality, the College will not issue tuition or fee refunds. Students should continue to attend class as the best outcome to complete their spring 2020 courses. To accommodate the move to remote instruction and to give students additional time to get adjusted to the new format and make decisions about their progress, withdraw dates for full-term and late-start classes have been extended to April 30. New classes that began on March 23 retain their original withdraw dates. The College is confident that most students can be successful with remote instruction. We encourage students who encounter difficulty to take advantage of these options:
- Speak to your instructor to determine if there are ways to improve your performance, get additional assistance or gain additional time for coursework. In some instances, circumstances may warrant an incomplete grade.
- Take advantage of the many options available for tutoring, either online or via remote tutoring with a peer or professional tutor.
- Reach out to your advisor to discuss your options and your progress toward completion.
- If none of these options work and you elect to withdraw, please follow the normal withdraw process through myHACC. Remember that the last day to withdraw is April 30.

Even though the College is not issuing refunds, we continue to gather information and follow guidance provided by the federal government, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and other agencies. Therefore, additional relief measures may become available at a later date.

We continually monitor the class schedule during registration and may add classes back in. We also invite feedback on the class schedule through our website.
If a student previously registered for an on-campus class with a lab for summer 2020, the student may remain registered for that lab class, and it will be offered remotely. Faculty are working on ways to offer labs remotely through the summer to ensure students can complete their requirements.

All textbooks for summer classes will be shipped to students. Students must order books online from bookstore.hacc.edu. All bookstores offer free shipping. Payment may be made via financial aid, credit card, check or HACC bookstore gift card. In addition to textbooks, you can also order your course materials and school supplies.

If the state reopens, the courses announced as remote will stay remote for the summer. Students may take a summer course that is listed at any HACC campus because all classes will be held remotely. Students can search for classes by not selecting any campus and just selecting the course in the search box.

Our health careers programs have been working to adjust the delivery of their program requirements to a remote format for the summer. As a result, we will switch the lab and the didactic portions, postponing lab or clinical courses for fall where necessary. Some programs are developing content this summer to put online, which will have long-term benefits and make more resources readily available for students. In the short term, this changes the original sequence of classes for students. As program course sequences are changed, students may need to adjust their schedules for general education courses as well. As a result, students are strongly encouraged to talk with their advisors to develop updated educational plans and talk with financial aid specialists for any financial aid questions.

Event Cancellations

Any future event cancellations will be added below.

Date	Time	Event	Location	Additional Information
March 16, 2020	7:30 p.m.	Danú - Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration	Rose Lehrman Arts Center HACC’s Harrisburg Campus	On behalf of Live at Rose Lehrman at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, the Danú - Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration concert has been canceled by the group. They have canceled their remaining U.S. concert tour and are returning to Ireland. We will refund your ticket for the full value. We ask for your patience as we address your refund. Our highest priority is the health and safety of our students, employees, patrons and artists. For more information on HACC’s response to the coronavirus, please visit hacc.edu/Coronavirus. Thank you for your understanding.”
March 17, 2020		Application Day	All campuses
March 17 and April 1, 2020		HACC’s Harrisburg Campus Transfer Fairs	HACC’s Harrisburg Campus
March 20, 2020		HACC’s Harrisburg Campus Community Partner Breakfast	HACC’s Harrisburg Campus
March 20 and April 3, 2020		HACC’s Lancaster Campus leadership series events	HACC’s Lancaster Campus
March 25, 2020		HACC’s Lancaster Campus Job Fair	HACC’s Lancaster Campus
March 27, 2020		HACC’s Gettysburg Campus HACC Experience Day	HACC’s Gettysburg Campus
March 27, 2020		HACC’s Harrisburg Campus Health Careers Exploration Day	HACC’s Harrisburg Campus
March 27, 2020		HACC’s Lancaster Campus Health Careers Exploration Day	HACC’s Lancaster Campus
April 2, 2020		HACC’s Gettysburg Campus Autism Awareness event	HACC’s Gettysburg Campus
April 18, 2020		HACC’s Harrisburg Campus Washington, D.C. Trip	Washington, D.C.	The student trip is canceled. The respective student development office will work to issue refunds to students who had paid for tickets.
May 14, 2020	6 p.m.	Spring 2020 Commencement Ceremony	Giant Center 550 W. Hersheypark Drive Hershey, PA 17033	Students who were scheduled to graduate in May will be invited to participate in the Commencement ceremony scheduled for December 2020.
May 16, 2020		HACC’s Lancaster Campus New York City Trip	New York City	The student trip is canceled. The respective student development office will work to issue refunds to students who had paid for tickets.