The University of Southern California is planning a “full return” to campus this fall, with face-to-face classes and residential life, President Carol L. Folt said in a letter to students on Friday.
“There is good news to report,” said Folt. “Coming out of the peak of vacation, we are seeing encouraging trends here in Los Angeles: new cases of COVID-19 are decreasing … and hospitalization rates continue to decrease. Although vaccines remain scarce, this is expected to improve in the coming weeks. “
The return of teachers, staff and students to the campus would be accompanied by “various protective measures”, including a campus vaccination operation that will be able to vaccinate 1,200 people a week, a testing program run twice a week for all students graduation and physical distance measures and classroom reconfigurations, said Folt.
The university dean said she does not expect to resume face-to-face classes during the spring semester, but that libraries, swimming pools and outdoor recreation areas will reopen with reduced capacity. The school bookstore has already reopened for shopping by appointment this week.
The university is also discussing the possibility of holding a face-to-face graduation ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for students in the 2020 and 2021 graduation classes, but capacity would be “extremely limited” at any event, Folt said.
The USC announcement follows others made by California college leaders in recent weeks. University of California President Michael V. Drake said at an event at the California Institute of Public Policy on Thursday that most of the classes in the fall would be face-to-face, with dorm life starting again, though not pre-pandemic levels. California State University said in December that it planned to resume most classes in person this fall.
The leaders of both systems, however, emphasized that such a return would depend in part on the wide distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. And CSU, in the past few days, has stepped back a bit in its plans, with Chico State announcing that only 20% to 30% of courses will include face-to-face classes due to the small size of the classrooms.
At a press conference on Friday, CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro reaffirmed the system’s plan to offer most face-to-face courses on 23 campuses this fall.
“It will definitely be more than 50% – I don’t know if it will be 70% or 80%, I still have no idea,” said Castro. “But it will be the majority – that is our plan. And again, it will depend on the evolution of the virus and the availability of the vaccine. “
Castro said that each campus will make its own decisions about exactly how many courses will be offered in person versus virtually in consultation with public health officials and state guidelines.
Times staff writer Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.