How Turlock’s Stanislaus State is handling spring semester return amid COVID spike
Despite spiking COVID-19 cases in the county, Stanislaus State University plans to start in-person classes as scheduled for its spring semester starting later this month.
Rosalee Rush, senior associate vice president for communications, marketing and media relations at the university, said classes will begin at the Turlock campus as planned Jan. 28.
“Currently, there are no plans to delay the start of classes for spring. Class meetings for the semester will begin on Jan. 28, according to the Class Schedule,” Rush wrote in an email response to The Modesto Bee.
State data shows Stanislaus County saw a spike in coronavirus cases after the holidays. On Monday, the county reported 1,440 new cases, the culmination of New Year’s weekend numbers from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The county’s 7-day average case rate was 23.4 per 100,000 population, the highest in the county since November.
At other CSU campuses, spikes in COVID-cases have caused delays in return to in-classroom instruction. On Tuesday it was announced that most Sacramento State classes and labs would meet virtually for the first two weeks of the spring semester, which starts Jan. 24. Classes will stay online through Feb. 6.
“I want to be clear that the two-week shift to mostly virtual instruction is temporary and that campus will remain open even during the transition,” said Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen in a statement about the decision.
Sacramento County cases have jumped to the highest levels seen during the pandemic, as the highly transmissible omicron variant continues to cause case surges across the state. Sacramento County’s seven-day case rate is about 80 per 100,000.
Last month the University of California system announced its campuses would have discretion whether to return to classes in-person or online. Seven of the campuses so far are delaying a return to the classroom and switching to virtual learning again in response to the latest COVID wave.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 7:19 AM.
