San Jose State University students have conflicting views about returning to campus after the university returned to in-person instruction Monday.
SJSU officials made the decision while considering a decrease in reported coronavirus cases in Santa Clara County and the California State University vaccination policy, Interim President Steve Perez stated in a Feb. 8 campus wide email.
Santa Clara County has a seven-day average of 1,145 positive COVID-19 cases, and 84% of county residents are vaccinated as of Monday, according to the Santa Clara County COVID-19 data and reports webpage.
Some students said they are ready for in-person instruction because they want to connect with their peers and understand information better in a physical classroom.
“The thing I'm most excited about is being able to be around the other students again because especially for an art major, it takes a lot of your motivation away to be stuck in your room, by yourself, doing art,” said illustration junior Cole Proctor.
Robin McElhatton, assistant director of media relations said students can enter buildings with their Tower Card.
However, she said a Tower Card isn’t needed to enter buildings including the Student Union, Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center, Student Wellness Center, Career Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
International business junior Christopher Rowland said he supports the opening of campus eateries in the Student Union because it brings community members together.
“When you want to hang out with your friends or talk to classmates or even work with people, it's quite nice to do it over food,” Rowland said.
Although many students returned to campus, not all students are as optimistic about the transition back to in-person classes.
Several students published a petition on Jan. 27 calling for hybrid or HyFlex instruction.
HyFlex, or hybrid and flexible instruction, is when classes offer both in-person and online learning formats, according to Cambridge Dictionary.
“We call on ALL students, professors, faculty, staff and alumni to sign on this petition in support of safe and accessible remote learning in order to ensure the safety of public health at San José State University,” organizers stated in the petition. “It is our duty to slow down the spread of COVID-19 to protect our disabled and immunocompromised community members.”
Petition organizers, who preferred to go by Huang Ling and Truc Tran for privacy concerns, said they created the petition after concerns emerged about the return to in-person instruction.
“The school isn't really ensuring our safety in terms of what they've been doing,” Truc Tran said. “I just feel like this is our way of taking the responsibility in our own hands, our own lives and health in our own hands.”
The petition currently has over 3,000 signatures and received support from various campus groups including the Black, Indigenous, Latinx & Student Nurses Of Color SJSU, the student chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and Students for a Democratic Society.
Ling said the petition signatures “show solidarity” among the campus community.
“A lot of policies have failed our communities to keep our families and our homes safe and I think a lot of folks are at a place where they realize at this point, as individuals, we can still protect each other,” Ling said.
The concerned students said they met with SJSU administrators on Wednesday to advocate hybrid classes.
Perez addressed student concerns in a Friday campuswide email.
“Some have specifically asked to require that all classes be taught in a hyflex mode,” Perez stated. “While that may seem like a solution, it is not feasible to do so at this time.”
In addition to stating the decline in COVID-19 cases , Perez said the virus is going to “continue for the foreseeable future” and the community needs to “move to a place where we can still live, learn and work with that in mind.”
Tran said the university needs to provide accessibility for those who may have difficulties returning to in-person instruction.
“I feel like as much as we want to go back to the old normal, we can never go back and moving forward we should focus on what we can do to adapt to the future and the ongoing present,” Tran said. “Which is. . . incorporating more technology, incorporating more accessibility for those that won't be able to [go back to fully in-person instruction]. ”
