Most UC campuses to begin upcoming term with remote instruction

Seven University of California campuses will shift to remote instruction at the start of the upcoming term in January, they announced Tuesday.

UC has nine undergraduate campuses across the state. The Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses will begin the winter term with remote instruction to allow for extensive testing of returning students. Davis will hold classes online for one week when students return. The other six campuses plan to hold classes online for two weeks.

Those campuses are the seven campuses that are on the quarter schedule and begin the next term Jan. 3. The other two UC campuses, Berkeley and Merced, are on semester calendars and don’t resume instruction until the middle of the month, giving them more time to finalize their plans for the term.

The campuses made the announcements after systemwide president Michael Drake said in a message to campus chancellors Tuesday that they could consider moving to online-only classes when students return in January. Given that Covid-19 cases “are continuing to rapidly rise across the nation as the Omicron variant spreads,” Drake said campus chancellors should “design and implement a plan for a January return to campus that mitigates public health impacts.” That may include a period of remote instruction, Drake added, “in order to allow students to complete an appropriate testing protocol as they return to campus.”

In his message Tuesday, Drake also emphasized that under the system’s Covid-19 vaccination policy, booster shots are mandated for eligible students and other community members.

“The evidence is clear that receiving a booster is essential to protecting yourself and those around you from Omicron and other variants,” Drake wrote.