On June 7, Cabrillo College announced that more than half the courses this fall will feature face-to-face or hybrid instruction. A listing of those classes will be posted on the www.Cabrillo.edu website starting June 15.
Registration for the fall is underway and students are encouraged to check their email and the college website after June 15 for class changes and new sections providing face-to-face instruction. Online classes and services will continue but in-person classes and services will greatly expand.
“We are making this shift to serve our community,” said Cabrillo President and Superintendent Matt Wetstein. “One of the things we learned during the pandemic is that some of our students like the flexibility of online learning. But we also heard loud and clear that some of our students miss the structured learning and social interaction that takes place on campus. They miss interacting with each other and the payoff that they get from the broader college experience of direct engagement with faculty, on-campus student support services, and being a part of peer study groups.”
Cabrillo officials anticipate making a full return to in-person instruction and services by spring semester 2022.
Staff and faculty will return to on-campus offices on Aug. 16.
The Aptos campus Welcome Center will reopen for student access, registration, and financial aid questions in early August.
College staff and faculty are working to shift some sections that were planned for online learning to in-person sections or hybrid sections. The goal is to move the class schedule from about 25% face-to-face offerings to 50% to 60% face-to-face sections for the fall. Popular transferable, general education offerings are being targeted for the change.
Several factors are driving the movement back toward in-person service. One key factor is the high vaccination rate in Santa Cruz County, with more than 50% of residents 18 and up vaccinated as of June 1.
Health officers in the 10 counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, including Santa Cruz County, have all endorsed a reopening of K-12 schools for the fall, citing the public health benefit of community learning.
According to a statement released by the health officers, “The lack of in-person learning has disrupted education, weakened the social supports provided by school communities, negatively impacted mental health, and prevented participation in the rituals and shared milestones that tie our communities together.”
The Cabrillo vaccine mandate decision mirrors other public school districts in the county and the California State University and University of California systems in addition to private education providers.
College officials will be communicating with registered students to provide directions on how to comply with the new vaccine mandate and processes for requesting medical or religious accommodations.
Students will need to be fully vaccinated by Aug. 2 to comply with the requirement for in-person attendance. To provide for public safety, the college plans to maintain the mask requirement for those on campus in the fall. The college will monitor public health directives and advisories and update campus safety policies accordingly.
To fulfill vaccination requirements, students, faculty, and staff can upload vaccination documentation at the Cabrillo Student Health Services portal at: www.cabrillo.edu/student-health-services/.
The process is relatively easy. Students need to have a pihoto of their vaccination card and simply click on the “upload document” feature of the secure website.