All Spring Semester Face-to-Face Classes To Be Remote Until Feb. 15

Sent: January 13, 2021
From:  Vincent Del Casino, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear campus community,

As many of you know, we are facing a dramatic increase in the rate of COVID-19 cases in Santa Clara County as well as the state of California. Some estimates suggest that the infection rate is nearly 15 percent of the population, with a “surge” of COVID-19 cases still to come from the winter break and holidays. 

Considering these factors, all planned on-campus face-to-face classes will move to a remote environment until February 15. Online classes are not affected and will resume as scheduled, with the first day of instruction beginning on January 27. Until February 15, faculty are asked not to work from campus unless they are engaged in approved RSCA activity.

As a reminder, Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (RSCA) work that can be done remotely should be done in this manner. “Critical and/or Time-Sensitive” RSCA projects that have been approved for access by the Vice President for Research and Innovation, appropriate college dean and Environmental Health and Safety are permitted to continue operation as approved without any modifications. Unlike teaching, our approved RSCA activities are being conducted in highly controlled environments with much lower densities. 

We hope that conditions change quickly so that we don’t have to extend the moratorium on face-to-face classes further into the semester. For students currently in university housing or planning to move to campus, more information will be communicated soon. 

Please know this is a decision we do not make lightly. The current context of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that we take this approach to safely minimize the density of the population on campus. 

Sincerely,

Vincent Del Casino
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs