California’s 115 community colleges may stay online this coming fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which means 2.1 million students at these institutions will stay home, reported Cal Matters.
Already, the California State University system has announced it will only have an online fall. And the University of California also reportedly said none of its campuses may fully reopen this fall. These two university systems together enroll roughly 770,000 students.
At a board of governors’ meeting, California Community Colleges chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley endorsed the decision already made by some of the state’s community colleges to continue remote instruction come fall.
“As we transition to the fall, many of our colleges have already announced that they’re going fully online in the fall,” Oakley said. “I encourage them to continue to do so. I fully believe that that will be the most relevant way for us to continue to reach our students and to do it in a way that commits to maintaining equity for our students.”
Oakley acknowledged the difficulties of moving instruction online.
“… there have been lots of bumps on the road to this transition” but “by and large faculty have made an amazing transition, our colleges have made amazing effort to continue to engage our students.”