All 23 California State University campuses will remain closed with most instruction moved online through the fall semester in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, chancellor Timothy White announced Tuesday. Cal State East Bay announced that its fall semester athletics are canceled as well, but it’s not yet clear how the remaining schools will handle athletics.
Note that the Cal State system operates independently of the University of California (UC) system. The UC system has yet to release an official decision, but a spokesman told CBS2 its 10 campuses were unlikely to fully reopen this fall.
“This virtual planning approach for the next academic year is necessary because of the evolving data surrounding the progression of COVID 19,” White told CSU trustees, according to ABC7.
The majority of classes across the Cal State system will be taught online, White said, with limited exceptions (like nursing courses and labs) allowing for in-person instruction. The CSU campuses, which reach about 482,000 students annually, had moved to online classes in March.
“The enrollment per section will be less; for instruction and research laboratories the distance between participants greater; the need for personal protective equipment appropriate to the circumstance prevalent; and the need to sanitize and disinfect spaces and equipment between users essential,” White said.
Cal State Fullerton had already announced in April that it would remain closed through the fall.
The closures could be devastating for men’s water polo, which is an early fall sport that historically has its strongest teams based in California. Long Beach State, which finished last season ranked No. 7 in the nation, is included in the closures.
Six of the Cal State schools have at least a women’s swim team. San Jose State, CSU East Bay, Fresno State, and San Diego only have women’s programs, while Cal Poly and Cal State Bakersfield have both a women’s and men’s team. CSU East Bay (the only Division II team) is the defending PCSC champion and San Diego State was the 2020 Mountain West champion and qualified four for NCAAs.
Six UC schools also have at least a women’s swim team. UC Davis and UCLA only have women’s programs, while UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz have both a women’s and men’s team.
Serie A soccer in Italy will return to playing games on June 13th. (California announces it will allow people sports again in 2026. Maybe)…
I have a fear of sharks. It’s not rational. I know that. I’m not going to forbid my child or try to talk spouse out of getting their diving licenses that they were working towards before everything shut down.
There was a surfer who died after a shark attack in CA recently. While it’s horrible, how many surfers aren’t attacked and killed by sharks every year? What is the percentage of that one surfer to the total of all the surfers in CA?
Going back to college and getting back in the pool shouldn’t be blocked by people promoting fear.
Facts over fear. That has to be the focus.
Having a fear of sharks is not rational???? DISAGREE.
Here in Contra Costa County in the East Bay Area of Northern California, we were one of the first counties in the county to shelter in place. We were told it was due to the necessity to flatten the curve to prevent our hospitals from being over run. Our SiP has been extended beyond what Newsom is suggesting for the rest of California–at least through May. Here are the latest stats from our county:
Population: 1.2 million
Deaths: 31
Currently hospitalized with Covid: 18
Hospital bed utilization by Covid patients: 1.2%
Ventilator utilization by all patients: 9%
ICU bed utilization by all patients: 50% (note, 111 of 221 beds filled, with only 18 total, ICU… Read more »
Public health officials are certainly enjoying their time in the spotlight it seems. I feel for you out there.
Looking at those numbers, one could argue the SIP was a success.
As a pool operator, I am working on our new normal. Social distancing is front and center. The risk is not so much while swimming, it is while on the wall, dryland areas, railings, water fountains, ingress / egress, restroom fixtures and stalls, etc.. Locker rooms, lobbies, showers are pretty much off the table.
Quite a conundrum: health or wealth.
If you are under 24 years old there is literally a less than one in a million chance you are going to die from the coronavirus. And some states are shutting down colleges. This is pure insanity. (If you are under 54 you have almost no risk as well). This decision is ridiculous!
Welcome to the “new normal”. Where technocrats rule!
Unfortunately for California they are run by the Democrat party. It’s all about power and control! Nothing to do with Safety!
That’s an original and throught-provoking theory right there!
On a serious note, if either party cared about the citizens more than power and control, they’d actively try to vote in strict term limits in congress. That’s not a republican vs. Democrat fight. That’s a politician vs average citizen fight. The politicians are just smart enough to just get their followers to blame the opposite party for all the issues instead of Congress!
Its OK all them liberal thinking, welfare grabbing, immigrant loving politicians can grind the whole state in the the sea. We dont need California schools to keep swimming great. I say just forget about em. People refuse to see the truth about the Demoscats…gald you bein a clear thinker like us Tennessee lovers!!!
Something to put out there as a food for thought:
The fall closing might have less to do with the virus and more to do with budget shortfalls (though no one would ever admit to that). In GA state agencies are being told we have to cut 14% of our budget. I’m at a small college that might be able to reopen in the fall (though questions linger of whether enough cleaning supplies and ppe can be restocked to reliably protect and clean). We are online though the summer, and one of the things that is happening is a consolidation of classes. Where a combination of scheduling and classroom space played a part before and may have required 4 classes… Read more »
That’s an interesting point.
I wonder how the budgets shift if students choose to take a gap semester, or decide to take a semester at a community college instead. I know many, many students are not enthralled with the online courses.
Also a good question…It’s a complicated calculus for sure. I know in GA the general mindset I’ve seen is to deal with the required budget cuts now and deal with the effects later…ie. figure out how to cut 14% and hope for the best, but deal with enrollment drops as they come to reality.
I don’t envy people who have to make these decisions. It’s definitely a no-win deal.
If I were planning to enroll in the fall, I would enroll in a community college instead and save big bucks.
I think some will do this, but even that isn’t always a straight cut answer. To again use the example of GA public colleges, instate tuition at the big schools (Tech, UGA, GA State, etc…) is about 4-5k per semester, but with the regional schools in the system it’s 2,500-3k. Community colleges in GA are about $1700 a semester for similar credits (most folks aren’t racking up loan debt over 1k a semester). The real cost is in living expenses (food, shelter, drinking, etc…), and those are likely to be cut in either case.
Out of state folks could benefit, but many times credits don’t transfer the way one would hope across tiers and states (ie community college in… Read more »
I suspect that the economy vs fatality argument playing out in this comment section is sort of a false premise. if people just acted normal… the virus would make hospitals across the USA look like NYC. Doctors would be picking which people die. Millions would die instead of thousands. It would be a nightmare of a different sort. And that sort of mass tragedy would probably also spur people to act just about how they are now, even without government mandate. That’s my thinking anyway. I don’t really buy the idea that the US *would* reopen right now for very long, even if the government said that we could. So, as much as I hate it, I think proactively sheltering… Read more »
Theo, just a hot take on your thoughts here. At the maximum point, the need for hospital space in California peaked at around 2,600 beds, with nearly 24,000 additional beds available (~10% capacity). To say that California would be overwhelmed even if they followed safety guidelines while reopening the state, and colleges, is a bit far fetched… Even looking at ICU beds, California barely reached a third of their capacity (~750 needed vs ~2000 total ICU beds). All that to say, the next few weeks will be telling as data rolls in from states that have chosen to open up; however, I think even in worst case scenarios very few would expect ICU cases to more than triple, or hospitalizations… Read more »
Quit watching CNN. The country is open, people are doing stuff. Remember the freak out on Georgia? Well, it’s been over two weeks and they’re fine.
Hey there are 49 other states with colleges. Maybe students should look somewhere else.