The University of California on Wednesday adopted a roadmap that could allow some or all of its 10 campuses to partly reopen in the fall, if widespread testing and tracing for the coronavirus gets underway, all students and faculty wear face coverings and physical distancing is kept.
The move by the UC Board of Regents does not guarantee that any of the 285,000-student system will operate in person for the fall term but holds out hope for some limited return to normal. Decisions will be made by individual campuses and labs over the next month or so, with some variation among them likely, officials said.
UC President Janet Napolitano said she anticipated that "most if not all of our campuses will operate in some kind of hybrid mode." That could involve combinations of continuing online classes for large lecture courses while allowing small discussion classes and labs in person. Some dorms may reopen with reduced populations, sports events could be held without audiences in the bleachers and campuses could limit entry to those who do not have a fever.
Fears are mounting across higher education nationally about increasing financial losses if large numbers of students decide that fully online classes are not worth the tuition payments.
UC already is struggling with enormous revenue losses related to the pandemic and also faces a possible 10% cut in state support as proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.