PHOTO AND STORY BY CRYSTAL CORTEZ, STAFF WRITER
Fall classes at Cypress College have begun to carry more in-person classes after almost 2 years of being remote. The Counseling Department is now holding in-person services in the Student Center.
Troy Davis, Dean of Counseling, explained his specific duties serving as Dean. He supervises all counseling faculty, including those under major areas. He also ensures that students smoothly register for their classes. He said, “ My role as the dean of Cypress College is, you know, ultimately making sure that students are satisfied. “
Diving Deeper into his personal experience in the educational system, Dr. Davis had been a counselor and department chair at Glendale Community College for about 23 years.
On June 24, 2021, Marc S. Posner, Director of Campus Communications, announced that only 20 percent of the classes would be held in person for Fall 2021 due to the pandemic. However, current numbers for Fall 2022 have risen to 70 percent, which is more than half of the student population on campus.
Dr. Davis shares optimistic reflections on why this is flourishing for students at Cypress College. “I just think it’s very healthy that you know in all honesty, I think that the pandemic did shake us up a little bit…I am a strong believer that we are social beings and that we truly need one another just to keep a very strong, healthy mental component, and psychological component for ourselves,” said Dr. Davis. “And so I’m very, very happy to see our students out and about and flourishing, and having a good time.”
On March 13, 2020, Cypress College closed the campus for in-person activities including in-person classes. It has been nearly two years since Cypress College has been physically filled in this capacity.
We get to understand how the Counseling Department operates by forgoing the previous. Dr. Davis states,” We pretty much have a virtual college and we have an on-campus college and we’re doing our best in servicing both… now we’re just really trying to find a way to find that sweet spot of having a really good balance of doing both things well… I hear really good things from the students that they like that balance of being able to do remote work with the counselors.”
Coming back since the pandemic, changes and improvements from Cypress College are anticipated. Dr. Davis spoke about some challenges the department had faced like losing employees because of Covid-19. However, some new additions to the counseling department have now brought a light looking forward.
“Again within the pandemic, it shook up a lot of things and so, some people have moved, you know, some people are moving, some people are coming in, and so we have lost some people and lost some employees… We’ve also gained some new employees and so are truly I am seeing that we’re working with a new and improved Cypress College,” said Dr.Davis.
He also makes it clear the counseling departments are fulfilling the needs of the two environments, virtual and in-person by adding counselors to both platforms equally.
Returning to Cypress College, the Counseling Department has new projects coming up. The Life Program on campus will be focusing on aiding rehabilitation services to formerly incarcerated students and should be expecting more programs to provide for those students.
Also prioritizing the initiative of creating accurate Student Educational Plans for students. In addition to researching jobs and occupations that allow for flexibility coming out of the pandemic in the Career Center on campus.
“In all of the programs that are under my administrative oversight, we are looking behind us at what the pandemic did. And now we’re looking forward in terms of what other miracles,” said Dr.Davis
