Iowa Central Community College President Dan Kinney is cautiously optimistic after the first week of classes at the community college.

“It’s going really good,” he said. “Overall, I believe all the planning that our administrative team did through all of this has worked well.”

Iowa Central’s leadership has spent the past six months establishing a detailed plan on how to reopen the college after the COVID-19 pandemic caused its closure in March. As the situation changed, so did the plans, Kinney said. The first day of the fall semester was Aug. 18.

“The start of school was a lot different than we’ve done before,” he said.

The college limited the number of students living in its residence halls to just over 1,000, and it spread out the move-in dates, allowing just 200 students a day to move in.

“What we usually do in a day, it took us a little over two weeks,” Kinney said.

As students moved in, ICCC partnered with the Community Health Center of Fort Dodge to have all of the students living on campus tested for COVID-19 with the health center’s rapid test.

“We probably had 1%, maybe less than that, that tested positive coming in,” Kinney said.

The students that tested positive were moved into housing set aside for students in quarantine.

Kinney credited the students’ compliance with the college’s mask mandate.

“They’ve definitely helped us stay on course for keeping as many classes as we can face-to-face, with proper social distancing throughout the institution,” he said.

He said he’s even seen students out at restaurants wearing their masks.

“I think our students want to be here,” he said. “They know they’re just as much a part of this team to be able to complete the semester without having to go online.”

Another major change this year is that Iowa Central is allowing only students who live on campus to eat in the campus cafeteria. However, the college has expanded its food offerings at the Triton Zone lounge for commuter students, faculty and staff.

Iowa Central is offering three options for classes — face-to-face, virtual with classes meeting via video conferencing, and fully-online classes. Kinney said students are taking a mix of the classes, depending on their needs.

The college is also offering a variety of virtual events hosted by the student activities committee to help students socialize, including virtual BINGO, virtual comedian shows, virtual concerts and more.

“It’s a neat deal they have,” Kinney said. “They’re working with other community colleges in Iowa and they’re doing stuff together. We may be hosting a virtual comedian and we may reach out to Iowa Western or Kirkwood and their students can get on and watch them. And then Kirkwood is doing an illusionist and our students can see that, too.”

While the novel coronavirus forced the college to change just about everything this semester, Iowa Central’s focus remains on the health, well-being and education of its students, Kinney said.

“We’re determined to giving them the best college experience that we can facing the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.