Sacramento State to reduce in-person classes as COVID-19 cases spike across California

Sacramento State will further reduce the number of people on campus for the rest of the fall 2020 semester due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in the capital region.

University President Robert S. Nelsen announced Friday that many classes that have been held face-to-face this semester would switch to online, effective Monday.

Courses with demonstrated need to be held in-person will continue, but the others will accompany the 95 percent of classes that have been held online since the beginning of the school year. The cancellation of in-person instruction will exclude internships, clinical placements, field placements and student teaching assignments, which will continue as planned.

Additionally, Sacramento State students living in dorms will be given the choice to stay or to leave the residence halls and receive a refund. All faculty and staff who are able to are being asked to work from home and avoid visiting the campus.

Nelsen’s announcement was made after consulting California State University Chancellor Timothy White and public health officials, according to a university news release.

“As members of a community, we must make decisions that are in the best interest of our campus and the Sacramento region. It is clear that COVID-19 is surging, and we must do our part to mitigate the spread by significantly decreasing the number of people traveling to and interacting on campus,” Nelsen said in a statement.

The announcement came as California recorded a record-high number of new cases, reaching 13,000 in one day. The spike in cases has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to establish a curfew of 10 p.m. across the state. In Sacramento County, a record was set on Thursday with 559 cases, with 454 more cases reported on Friday.