Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Thursday in a letter to all 23 institutions in the CSU system that most Spring 2021 classes will meet online. Following the announcement, The Orion posed some questions for The Chancellor’s Office that matter most to students. 

Q: Will the CSU be providing resources to students and faculty who cannot work from home?

A: All employees have been encouraged to work from home and provided the equipment to do so. There are obviously people whose jobs require them to be on campus (facilities staff for example), so those employees would continue to report to the campus and work under protocols designed to maintain their health and safety.

Q: Why are there still in-person classes (scheduled for Spring 2021) when many college-aged people are testing positive for COVID-19? Chico State and San Diego State both presented dangers to students. What will be different this semester?

A: There will be in-person coursework to the extent available based on the current conditions in a given region. To provide some context, about 7% of coursework is held in-person this semester.

Q: How will the CSU ensure students are safe in student housing? Chico State had to remove most students due to many confirmed cases in the dorms.

A: Campus leaders have put together plans to mitigate the spread of infection as best as possible, but as we have seen this semester, no amount of planning is foolproof. There will be many lessons learned and evolving best practices that will be applied to the coming term.

Q: Will (COVID-19) testing be readily available for students, staff and faculty that need to meet in person? 

A: Testing protocols will be left to the campus to determine how best to implement. In general, campuses have been urged to partner with local public health agencies to develop testing/notification/tracing processes, so how that’s implemented ultimately depends on the resources available within the region.

Q: Will tuition be reduced or remain the same?

A: There are no plans to reduce tuition.

All answers were provided to The Orion by Michael Uhlenkamp, senior director of Public Affairs at The Chancellor’s Office. 

Julian Mendoza and Kimberly Morales can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @JulianMTheOrion and @kimberlymnews.