FY 2021 Strategic Plan Update and Budget Report

TSTC’s Response to COVID
For decades, TSTC has been evolving through
constant change in pursuit of its mission.
During the inaugural strategic planning event,
TSTC’s leadership and the Board of Regents
participated in a context setting retreat that
focused on the following themes (among
others):
Disruptive Change is Incessant
Exponential Change is the New Normal
Stay the Same at Your Peril
Innovation is Essential
TSTC’s continual push to prepare for changing
times positioned the TSTC family to respond
with swift confidence to the events 2020 would
introduce.
TSTC leadership mobilized at the first signs that
the global pandemic was spreading. Before
COVID-19 arrived in North America, preparations
for the exponential spread of this novel virus
were underway at TSTC.
As the new cases in Texas accelerated in
mid March, TSTC extended the spring break
and shifted its workforce to a remote work
environment. Days later, Governor Abbott
issued executive orders, including closure
of in-person-attendance at Texas schools.
TSTC was exempted because a majority of its
programs are considered critical or essential.
To remain open, TSTC’s Student Learning teams
rapidly converted curriculum to online delivery
of content (where applicable) and readied the
College for a socially-distant and safe delivery
of its lab-intensive coursework. This comprises
nearly 60% of TSTC’s instructional delivery.
To prepare the College for this format of
teaching, teams worked to convert facilities,
train faculty, transition non-teaching
departments to remote-working, and prepare
response procedures.
On May 4, the College resumed on-campus
instruction where it was required, enabling
TSTC to complete the spring semester. Upon
completion of the extended semester, the
College started summer classes with the same
protocols that ensured a safe extension to
spring.
In addition to overhauling the College’s
learning delivery modalities, instructional
teams developed several new products to
provide solutions for Texas’ fast growing
population of unemployed workforce. These
new programs target essential skills to rapidly
return unemployed and underemployed
Texans back into the workforce.
TSTC’s continual push to prepare for changing times
positioned the TSTC family to respond with swift
confidence to the events 2020 would introduce.
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STRATEGIC PLAN & BUDGET REPORT