SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – California State University classes will remain online not only this fall but for the rest of the upcoming academic year.
The 23 campuses that make up the California State University system will continue with primarily virtual academic instruction for Spring 2021.
As for the timing of the announcement happening just weeks after the start of the fall semester, CSU Chancellor Timothy White wrote in an email:
“There are compelling and compulsory administrative factors that require us to decide now how to best proceed in January 2021.”
Among them he includes the need to publicize course offerings for students who are enrolling now.
The required authorization process with the CSU accrediting body and of course the primary reason being the status of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chancellor writes:
“In the absence of a vaccine and of sufficient, cost-effective, timely testing and contact-tracing infrastructure, we are not able to return to a normal, principally in-person schedule in January 2021. And there are seasonal factors that threaten to accelerate the disease’s progression, rather than slow it.”
Leading to what the chancellor calls a regrettable but necessary decision.
Making the announcement early in the fall term will allow faculty, staff, students and their families all more time to prepare for the virtually learning experience.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the impact on on-campus learning, and reports of potential layoffs being considered to offset a multi-million dollar budget reduction, CSU officials say that preliminary fall term enrollment is strong across the vast majority of the 23-campus system.