BREAKING: Cal State System to Exist Largely Online This Coming Fall
[guest post by JVW]
It would seem that the higher education establishment is quite bearish on the ability to welcome all students back to campus for the 2020-21 academic year.
BREAKING: @calstate's leader Tim White says that the 23-campus system will be largely virtual in Fall 2020. Some exceptions will be made for hands-on courses, but he cites analysis of forthcoming waves of covid-19 infection that makes in-person learning too dangerous.
— Mikhail Zinshteyn (@mzinshteyn) May 12, 2020
Mikhail Zinshteyn is the higher education reporter at CalMatters, which is the go-to news source for honest and virtually agenda-free reporting about Golden State matters.
It will be interesting to see if the University of California system releases a similar edict. This will no doubt trigger some layoffs at the CSU campuses, but it will also likely make some small progress in ameliorating the coming budget crunch.
– JVW
It will also be interesting to see if the State University of New York (SUNY) system follows the CSU system’s lead, as well as other university systems in the states which have been hit relatively hard by the virus. And if they do, how quickly do they announce it.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 10:55 amOn the other hand, perhaps this is a big trial balloon floated up by Chancellor White to gauge what sort of response it receives. As of this moment, there is formal announcement on the CSU system website, nor did Mr. Zinshteyn’s tweet have a link to any press release.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 10:58 amI suspect that this is more to protect professors and administrators than to protect students, who are less at risk. Possibly also the community at large. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with this, but it just isn’t being said.
What will be interesting is how well the distance-learning model works. I can see it working much better in English Lit than, say, Organic Chemistry. We may be seeing the implosion of the physical school, and this will lead to some unintended consequences like removal of a parent from the workforce, less mixing of children from different backgrounds and a general isolation of members of society.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:03 amAlso, see Asimov, The Naked Sun, for a murder mystery on a planet BASED on social distancing. The ultimate locked-room mystery.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:05 amI don’t see how the UC system really has a choice. They are having to make the decision now, and that will be based on where we currently stand with regard to the virus, and what tentative projections. To some degree it’s a guessing game, and it would seem erring on the side of caution would benefit them more in the long run. If they choose to have in-person classes, and an outbreak occurs, it won’t look good for them. It’s nearly impossible to consider that SUNY wouldn’t do the same, all things considered.
Here is an ongoing round-up on the status of various public and private institutions and their plans for Fall 2020. Some will be open for in-person instruction, some will continue with online classes. Also, furloughs and layoffs are mentioned as well.
Dana (0feb77) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:10 amGreat link, thanks Dana. This would be an ideal year for an incoming freshman or perhaps even rising sophomore to take a gap year, except for the fact that there probably won’t be any jobs for them and travel restrictions could be in place. It’s really a horrible time to be a college kid.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:14 amSo they can refund all the absurd costs and fees that have gone into making the campuses as extravagant as possible and focus on learning, right?
NJRob (4d595c) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:20 amYou know what really sucks too? Let’s say that you are a kid from Torrance who is finishing her freshman year at San Diego State. You were down there living in the dorms, but when COVID hit you went back to Torrance and have been finishing up your online classes from home. You want to be a chemistry major, and this fall you need to take the first semester of Organic Chemistry, which includes a three-hour lab which presumably will have to meet in person. So now what? Do you pay for a dorm room or rent an apartment and live down in San Diego just so that you can go to your weekly OChem lab? Do you make the drive from Torrance to San Diego one day each week in order to do your lab work? What if the distance is too great for you to make a weekly day-trip, such as a student living in Chula Vista who is attending San Francisco State? Will the CSU system set up an exchange program so that you can take the course at your nearest CSU campus and transfer credit to the school in which you are enrolled? There are an awful lot of details to be worked out here.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:26 amSo they can refund all the absurd costs and fees that have gone into making the campuses as extravagant as possible and focus on learning, right?
I would think now is a great time to furlough, if not lay off, most of your Office of Diversity and Equity, yet somehow I doubt that will be in the cards.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:28 amHere’s an interesting question:
Absent ongoing pandemics, come 2023 what percent of 2019’s campuses have remained virtual? Where does it make sense, and where does it not? I can’t see grammar school benefiting much from virtuality, and many reasons why they won’t, including sunk costs and parental pressure. OTOH, if the cost of college or graduate education could be substantially reduced, distance learning makes a lot of sense.
If the answer is that a good portion of campuses are remaining virtual (and workplaces and …), then I think I want to invest in dark fiber.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:35 amI would think now is a great time to furlough, if not lay off, most of your Office of Diversity and Equity, yet somehow I doubt that will be in the cards.
I would think that any such furlough plans would have to be OK’d by that office, to maintain or increase “diversity”*.
————-
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:37 am*”You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”
Absent ongoing pandemics, come 2023 what percent of 2019’s campuses have remained virtual?
Ironically enough, so many Cal State campuses have been trying to transition from being “commuter schools” to being more traditional universities, so over the past quarter century there has been a huge emphasis on building dormitories and expanding student centers and dining options on campus. If it is determined that the future of higher education is more remote and virtual, a lot of ancillary revenue that was to help pay off bond money is going to be lost and schools are going to be left figuring out what to do with these white elephants.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:44 amI got this from my Chancellor yesterday:
Dave (1bb933) — 5/12/2020 @ 12:36 pm“I would think now is a great time to furlough, if not lay off, most of your Office of Diversity and Equity, yet somehow I doubt that will be in the cards.”
I would think they’d be looking at any meat they can cut to the bone while preserving the diversity admin fat storage needed to combat the western world white patriarchy.
Don’t have the link handy but a couple years ago I saw a list of all the different well-paid positions at each UC campus dealing strictly with diversity and the numbers were astounding.
Also will be interested to see if the faculty and students claiming ecological conditions resulting from the lockdown bearing testament to the need to do away with the internal combustion engine and other curtails on freedom of movement will embrace the drop in STD statistics in the same fashion in regards to attending college from their parents’ homes.
harkin (8f4a6f) — 5/12/2020 @ 12:56 pmOne issue with UCLA, Berkeley and top tier private schools will be international air travel. California attracts quite a few Asian-nationality students, and while there will be some international air travel, it won’t be convenient and it won’t be cheap. I think we’ll be kissing goodbye to discounted air travel for some time.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 1:11 pmBreaking911
@Breaking911
BREAKING: Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders extended for the next 3 months – KTLA
harkin (8f4a6f) — 5/12/2020 @ 1:52 pm_
16… that will be cheered by several here, harkin. NeverTrump KARENs who claim to have only The Peoples’ best interests at heart. Absolutely insane.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2020 @ 2:02 pmGood opportunity to shed administrators and under-performing professors.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2020 @ 2:20 pmThanks for the UC update, Dave. I would guess that they would have to close certain dorms and consolidate those students who need/wish to remain on campus into the remaining dorms, but even with the layoffs of dorm staff I am wondering if the UC schools will just eat any deficit in dorm/meal revenue or if they will use this as an excuse to jack up prices for room & board, partly in an effort to discourage students from living in campus housing.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 3:02 pmYikes. Hope they give the students a break in tuition.
Hoi Polloi (dc4124) — 5/12/2020 @ 3:07 pmWhat really bothers me is that I firmly believe one of the real benefits of college is the opportunity to live on your own, probably for the first time (and recognizing that not all students leave home for college), and there’s a pretty good chance that this learning experience will be delayed for a lot of students, perhaps until after they receive a bachelor’s degree.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/12/2020 @ 3:18 pm4. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 11:05 am
Solaria. But they surround themselves with robots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun
Sammy Finkelman (375edc) — 5/12/2020 @ 3:24 pmIf I were in charge I’d see if they could use the jr. college facilities for distance-learning labs. Most Californians have a jr. college in reach.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/12/2020 @ 4:41 pmOne option New York City is considering for its K-12 public schools is alternate days online and in school (in order to allow in person attendance but limit the number of people present in the buildings at one time.
So if distance learning was combined with a little in person attendance in state collleges in California they could do that.
But they’re more likely just not to offer organic chemistry or any course with labs, or create another course without the lab that will fulfill some prerequisites.
By the way, New York City is reinstating alternate side of the street parking for next week then suspending it again for at least two weeks after that.
Sammy Finkelman (375edc) — 5/12/2020 @ 4:49 pm@24 As a representative of K-12 staffing I can only say, “We have no idea what we are going to do next year.”
There are a lot of possibilities floating around.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/12/2020 @ 5:49 pmI would guess that they would have to close certain dorms and consolidate those students who need/wish to remain on campus into the remaining dorms
Hmmm … wouldn’t it be best to let the students spread out? Roommates would seem to be a bad idea.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/12/2020 @ 6:27 pmHard for me to imagine. For me the social aspects were very important. Figuring out how to get my laundry done, how to get meals or a haircut, how to get along with people, all thos things were more important in the long run than memorizing the Krebs cycle.
Fred (79d82a) — 5/13/2020 @ 6:50 am