The UC-Santa Barbara Variant

You've heard of the Delta variant and the Omicron variant. But did you know about the UC-Santa Barbara variant? From the Santa Barbara Independent:

Chancellor Henry T. Yang announced on Jan. 8 that UC Santa Barbara will allow its class instructors to decide whether or not to conduct classes in-person or remotely for Week 3 and Week 4 of Winter Quarter 2022. UCSB plans to resume full in-person instruction on Jan. 31. Instructors have until Jan. 11 to tell their students whether they should expect their class to be online or in-person; however, students with instructors who choose to conduct classes in-person will have a remote option should they wish to stay online through January. UCSB is the only UC school to not fully extend remote learning through Jan. 28. 

“​​We expect that many instructors will decide to continue teaching remotely for the rest of the month, in order to ensure stable and consistent delivery of their lectures, and we understand that some students will need to be absent at some point during this two-week period,” Yang wrote in his email. “We are trying to balance our faculty commitment to providing students with the best educational experience possible with the practical realities expected for the rest of the month.” ...

Full story at https://www.independent.com/2022/01/10/ucsb-instructors-given-discretion-over-in-person-or-remote-classes/.