Fresno City College starts school virtually, less than 5% of students report in person

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Classes kicked off virtually for students in the State Center Community College District (SCCCD). That included the Fresno City College Campus, with a select few even reporting to class in-person.

Trent Dun is one of the less than 5% of Fresno City College students reporting to campus.

"It's super weird, no cars, all the parking lots are empty, and then parking was free," said Dun.

As part of the computer-aided manufacturing class, he's one of the very few students going for in-person instruction.

"I was happy being able to talk to the instructors instead of just through Zoom," continued Dun.

Certain classes like nursing, welding, and various labs are still on campus. It's a very different environment for those select few.

"The computer lab was all separated, everyone was spaced out, walking around, we just did a tour and stayed separate from each other," said Dun.

"We're asking for people to self-monitor, that means if you have a temperature stay home," said Fresno City College President Carole Goldsmith. "We're asking that if you're here have a facial covering, wash your hands frequently."

Meanwhile, most of Fresno City's 20,000 students are learning online, and it wasn't all smooth sailing. The SCCCD's online portal where students access resources, including their classes and email, was down, causing some big headaches on the first day.

Reedley College and Madera Community College tweeted about the outage, redirecting students to a working link for Canvas. Students at Fresno City College also reported trouble accessing their student portal.

District Office IT worked on the problem, with students still able to access their courses and email through their individual sites.

Students can still access the individual websites outside of the portal through the following links:

WebAdvisor: webadvisor.scccd.edu

Canvas: scccd.instructure.com

Email: login.microsoftonline.com