How Sacramento State plans to adjust as CSU campuses move most fall classes online
Walking through a mostly empty campus on a weekday afternoon while taking online classes to slow the coronavirus spread wasn’t the college experience first-year student Jenny Ruiz expected when she decided to enroll at California State University, Sacramento.
She said her professors have been doing their best to overcome some of the difficulties of teaching students online, but they had very little time to prepare for the sudden change to the curriculum as authorities ended in-class instruction in March to limit the number of people infected with COVID-19.
Ruiz wasn’t thrilled Tuesday after learning that the majority of classes at California State University campuses in the fall will only be available online.
“It’s not exactly the best learning experience. There’s a lot of distractions online,” said Ruiz, a biology major from Los Angeles who hopes to advance to medical school. “Especially in the scientific field. You need the lab experience, you need the research experience.”
CSU chancellor asks for online plans
At a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, CSU Chancellor Timothy White asked the 23 CSU campuses to develop plans for online classes through the fall.
White said these plans are necessary for the 2020-2021 academic year as “evolving data” surrounding the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused the coronavirus. He said the health and safety of students, faculty and staff is most important, and regular in-class instruction might have to be switched to online if a “serious second wave of the pandemic occurs, as forecast.”
“Virtual planning is necessary because it might not be possible for some students, faculty and staff to safely travel to campus,” White said in a written statement. “Said another way, this virtual planning approach preserves as many options for as many students as possible.”
Ruiz, who lives on campus, hopes Sacramento State officials can learn from some of the mistakes made during the past two months of online courses.
“I’m hoping for a smoother transition in the fall,” Ruiz said. “Not all of us can adapt to online classes.”
She said likes being in class to engage with fellow students and her teachers, and also learning from guest speakers. All that really isn’t the same while taking courses online.
Ruiz, who is done with classes this semester Thursday, still plans to graduate in four years, but she might take a semester off if only online courses are offered in spring. She said it costs a lot of money to travel from her home in Southern California and live in Sacramento for a college experience that isn’t what she wanted.
The CSU chancellor said courses will be “primarily” online in the fall semester, with limited exceptions for in-class instruction and research activities that cannot be provided online. These exceptions must be for learning activities that are “indispensable to the university’s core mission” and must be conducted within rigorous safety standards.
White said these hybrid approaches will vary at each CSU campus due to specific context and circumstances. He said some examples of potential exceptions include:
- Clinical classes with training mannequins for nursing students to keep them on track for entry into California’s health care workforce.
- Essential physical and life science laboratory classes required for graduation and entry into the energy and bioscience fields.
- Access to kilns and other unique facilities for students in the performing and creative arts.
- Hands-on experience with unique instrumentation and senior projects for engineering, architecture and agriculture students.
- Access to an interactive simulator for boat and ship handling that provides students the skills necessary for the maritime industry and required by the U.S. Coast Guard and United Nations International Maritime Organization.
White said the granting of in-class instruction will continue with consultation from academic senates, associated students, staff councils and union leadership. He also said that some campuses and in some academic disciplines course offerings are likely to be “exclusively” online. The CSU system statewide has about 482,000 students and 53,000 faculty and staff.
Faculty union expects health and safety
Charles Toombs, president of the California Faculty Association, said the union expects the highest levels of health and safety for those faculty, staff and students who will have to work and learn on campus. CFA represents 29,000 lecturers, tenure-line faculty, librarians, coaches and counselors at CSU campuses throughout the state.
“While we can appreciate Chancellor White’s push for a cohesive, advanced plan to learn from mistakes made during the Spring 2020 term, the planning, content and delivery of instruction comes from faculty who must be brought into the conversation,” Toombs said in a written statement Tuesday. “We expect to see faculty participation every step of the way in the various departments and colleges on the campuses.”
Sacramento State University President Robert S. Nelsen said Tuesday’s announcement from the CSU chancellor “clearly means that most of us will not be back on campus this fall.”
“Sacramento State is, accordingly, developing a plan for the vast, vast majority of classes to be virtual for Fall 2020,” Nelsen said in a written statement. “We also are developing a plan for vetting exceptions.”
Nelsen said that the campus president, the CSU chancellor and the local county health department must approve each and every exception, which must demonstrate a compelling educational need.
“No faculty member or staff member will be asked to teach or staff any class that receives an exception without their explicit permission, all such in-person work must be the choice of the individual,” Nelsen said. “Likewise, no student will be required to take an in-person class as part of their progress to their degree.”
He said alternative pathways will be offered for any student with legitimate reasons for not participating in the in-class courses. Nelsen also said those courses must be provided with “all the requisite personal protective equipment and social distancing protections.”
A “Summer Camp” program is being developed for faculty to ensure online instruction is “comprehensive and robust,” Nelsen said $1 million has been dedicated to this program, and he hopes that more than 800 faculty will be involved. Faculty members will receive $1,000 for their participation.
Reduced cultural and athletic events
White has indicated that there will be a reduced availability of cultural and athletic events, but it was still unclear what that will mean for Sacramento State artists and athletes. He said they expect to have more answers by the end of this month, when Sacramento State will provide more information to students about what to expect in the fall.
Some business operations will return to campus in the fall, but at a “very measured, phased-in time scale” with health and safety precautions. White asked university employees who can work from home to continue for the foreseeable future.
“The University has not and will not shut down,” Nelsen said. “Unfortunately, most of the campus has been closed to the public and is operating remotely.”
Janice Phanthai, a graduating child development Sacramento State student, was on campus Tuesday afternoon taking some grad photos in her ceremonial cap. Like other graduates, she returned to campus to commemorate her academic accomplishment with some photos.
Sacramento State will host a “virtual graduation celebration” June 6 for the class of 2020, and the classes of 2020 and 2021 are to be honored at Golden 1 Center in May 2021.
Phanthai, who also worked on campus, said she cried when she learned she has to wait for a real graduation ceremony. She said her final two months of education at Sacramento State were not easy, and she worries about what students will experience with mostly online courses in the fall.
“I feel like it’s going to be pretty challenging,” said Phanthai, who commuted from her home in Antelope. “It was pretty difficult for me. It’s easier to focus when you’re in a classroom.”
But Phanthai said she hopes students will continue on track to graduation. “You kind of work so hard for college, why give up now?”
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How Sacramento State plans to adjust as CSU campuses move most fall classes online."
