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Saturday, May 2, 2020

More on "Opening" in the Fall

The "hybrid" instruction method for the fall is being repeatedly reinforced in public statements as the likely plan for UC. However, there is a long distance between an actual plan and a concept. Moreover, even when a specific plan is announced, there will be uncertainty about the fiscal side. How many accepted students will actually enroll? The state budget - and thus the allocation to UC - may change over the summer. What happens if during the fall there is a surge in coronavirus cases on a particular campus?

Note that UC-Berkeley - because of its semester system - is going to have to go first. Other campuses can observe what happens.

Anyway, here is the latest missive on the hybrid subject from the (now-outgoing) UC prez:

Testing and contact tracing programs for the coronavirus will be required for University of California campuses to reopen in the fall, system president Janet Napolitano told CNBC on Friday. “They will all have to meet minimum safety standards to reopen,” Napolitano said on “The Exchange.” “If they’re going to reopen at all, they’re going to need to have a testing plan, a contact tracing plan, a quarantine plan, things of that sort.” 

The UC system has 10 campuses across the state; all serve undergraduates except UC San Francisco. Napolitano said the university system, which has around 280,000 students, will definitely offer classes in the fall, but it remains a question of how that instruction will be given. “It might be remote. It might be in person. It might be some sort of hybrid,” said Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona and secretary of Homeland Security. Each campus across the system is in the process of developing a specific plan for the fall, she said. She said students will be informed “well in advance of what the campus is going to offer as they make their decisions of whether or not to actually enroll.” 

...The University of California system suffered financial losses in March of around $600 million, Napolitano said. Half came from lost revenue at the university system’s medical centers, while the rest is attributable to refunds on housing and dining fees as campuses shifted online, she said. “We’re waiting for the April numbers,” she said,  “but they’ll be larger.” 

Full story at https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/university-of-california-president-janet-napolitano-on-fall-classes.html

One element of note: The governor has been holding daily news conferences Monday through Friday, each one centered on a particular topic. None have focused on public higher ed institutions, although the governor is an ex officio member of the Board of Regents. Yours truly has archived the video from the news conferences at archive.org. The best way to locate them is to go to that address and search for "Daniel J.B. Mitchell." You can then narrow the search using the menu available to 2020 and "movies" (i.e., video).
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The UCLA version of all of this is at the links below:
https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/04/future-planning-task-force.html
https://chancellor.ucla.edu/messages/planning-fall-2020-beyond/

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