NIC cancels events and moves toward online classes amid COVID-19 concerns

North Idaho College made the decision to cancel multiple campus events and move toward online classes due to COVID-19 fears.

NIC president Rick MacLennan released a statement Thursday night addressing the newest changes at NIC because of the pandemic.

“Our instructional leaders are working with division chairs and faculty representatives to begin moving as many classes online as possible, beginning next week,” said NIC president Rick MacLennan. “We are doing this to minimize exposure by limiting the number of students who would otherwise need to come to campus.” 

NIC cancelled or postponed many events including, but not limited to, Bingo Night, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and Triple Play Night. According to an email sent out by Campus Life coordinator Kyle Johann-Baker, “Unless an event can be conducted virtually, all scheduled events through April 30th are to be cancelled or rescheduled to a future date. Evaluation will continue for events scheduled after April 30th.” Photo by Jaye Hanselmann-Cox.

MacLennan said that NIC will not close campus or suspend the campus at this time, and employees of the school will continue to work as usual. All NIC events and travel including athletics will be cancelled or postponed until further evaluation after April 30. NIC announced that the women’s basketball team would not attend the postseason tournament shortly before the NWAC cancelled the event.

“For our student athletes their health and safety was the most important thing that kind of drove our decisions,” said athletic director Bobby Lee. “Traveling at this point in time was just not in their best interest, so we chose to not participate in it and cancel our trip.”

The state of Idaho has only one positive case of COVID-19 in Boise, but MacLennan said that the steps were necessary as the virus continues to spread across the country.

“By thinking innovatively and creatively, offering compassion and support to one another and staying connected, we will make it through this together,” MacLennan said. “Even as it requires greater physical separation.”

Some students said that they were not too concerned, but understood the  decision. 

“I think we’re freaking out too soon,” said NIC student Baylee J. Brown. “But in a sense it’s a good way to prevent it from coming.” 

“Panic won’t help anyone,” said NIC student Taylor Rodden.

Other students, however, said they were concerned about the effect these decisions will have on the dorms.

“It’s scary thinking about what’s going to happen here,” said student Emily Miller. “We don’t know if they’re going to close the dorms or what.” 

Co-author Anika Mechikoff. 

Update March 13, 2020, Lauguage changed for clarity

Update March 19, 2020, Incorrect spelling of Rick MacLennan has been changed. We apologize for this error.