CSU classes to remain online in fall
have made the very hard decision to continue with predominantly remote instruction. …
“We hope to be able to grant exceptions for a very small number of courses that require specialized inperson learning experiences and are necessary for student degree progress. We will work to accommodate students unable to participate in facetoface instruction.”
Mahoney reached her decision after speaking with hundreds of students, faculty and staff, she said. Almost all of them asked about the school’s plan for the fall semester as they sought stability amid “unimaginable uncertainty,” as Mahoney put it.
The email to students included no indication that San Francisco State plans to offer a tuition reduction, despite the decision to stick with online instruction. Few schools gave students a refund this spring, after moving classes online in midMarch — sparking a flurry of classaction lawsuits.
UC Berkeley officials, in a message to students last month, made it clear that 202021 tuition “will not be refunded in the event instruction occurs remotely for any part of the academic year.”
One San Francisco State student, junior Samantha Laurey, said she hoped the school would offer at least a partial refund. Laurey, a photojournalism major from Martinez, didn’t expect a full return to oncampus classes, but she figured San Francisco State might find some middle ground.
“I’m surprised they stuck to online,” she said. “When you don’t have the technology they have at school, it’s difficult to keep up. … I’m surprised they didn’t at least implement hybrid classes.”
The news Tuesday followed a Chronicle report last month in which San Jose State Provost Vincent Del Casino said his school would offer most of its fall classes online, with potential exceptions for courses such as art and dance. Del Casino, in a phone interview, acknowledged “it’s likely we’ll be limiting large gatherings in the fall, to have physical distancing.
“Our goal is to have as much flexibility as possible for students,” he said then.
White, the systemwide Cal State leader, made his comments Tuesday morning at a Board of Trustees meeting. He indicated the decision to stay online traced, in part, to medical experts predicting a “serious second wave of the pandemic” in the fall.
That’s an ominous possibility on college campuses, considering the inherent challenges of keeping students 6plus feet apart at all times.
“What makes universities unique and wonderful places also makes them uniquely vulnerable to the spread of disease,” Mahoney wrote to S.F. State students. “Ask any faculty member who has faced a class full of coughing students in January, or any student who has lived in a densely populated residence hall.
“We thrive on social interaction, on working huddled closely around a table, in a studio or over a microscope. Mitigating a highly contagious disease under these circumstances is near impossible and would be prohibitively expensive.”
Also on Tuesday, Stanford officials, in an email to the campus community, acknowledged that undergraduate instruction might remain entirely online for the fall quarter.
The email, from Provost Persis Drell and three vice provosts, said Stanford expects “some degree of remote instruction will continue … If ongoing public health concerns prevent undergraduate residential programs in the fall, instruction could be delivered fully remotely.”
School officials also told students they probably will need to wear face coverings “regularly.”
“When you don’t have the technology they have at school, it’s difficult to keep up.”
Samantha Laurey, San Francisco State junior, on online learning