California State University has announced that it will keep all 23 campuses closed for the upcoming spring semester. According to a letter written by a university official, Cal State students will likely be asked to continue their courses online until a coronavirus vaccine is widely available.
According to a report by Campus Reform, the California State University system will keep its campuses closed for the spring semester. Cal State is the first university system in the country to announce that its campuses will remain closed for the spring semester.
Breitbart News reported in May that Cal State was one of the first institutions to move courses online for the fall semester. As a result of the decision, nearly 500,000 students enrolled in the system are taking courses remotely this fall.
In the letter published on Thursday, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced the decision to keep courses online for the spring semester.
After extensive consultation with campus presidents and other stakeholders, and careful consideration of a multitude of factors – regarding the pandemic and its consequences, as well as other matters impacting the university and its operations – I am announcing that the CSU will continue with this primarily virtual instructional approach for the academic term that begins in January 2021, and also will continue with reduced populations in campus housing.
White claims that the decision was made in response to statistics that indicate that the number of coronavirus cases is plateauing in California. White suggested that it will be difficult to reopen the campus before a vaccine is widely available.
Another important aspect of the rationale for this decision comes from analyzing the facts about the pandemic itself. We know far more about it now than we did back in May. The virus continues to spread. There is no vaccine and there likely will not be one widely available any time soon. The summer increase in infections that was forecast in the spring happened as predicted, and it was larger than expected. While cases and hospitalizations are starting to stabilize in most of California’s counties, it is plateauing at a number that is approximately 40 percent higher than what we experienced in the spring.
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