SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, June 11, the University of the Pacific (UOP) announced that they are planning to reopen all three campuses, including San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento campus, to welcome back their students, faculty and staff this fall. The school released the official announcement on their website.
According to UOP, their faculty and staff have been working on the plans for the fall semester amid the coronavirus pandemic. Still, there are a lot of details being planned.
The school has outlined the following elements for their safely returns plan:
- In Class -Most classes at UOP will be held in larger rooms to maintain the social distancing between the participants. The school will require all the faculty and students to wear face protection in class.
- Flexible Courses -Most of classes at UOP will be hybrid. The students will have face-to-face and remote learning in their classes. The students will be able to swing between remote and in-person class. A student may take all the classes remotely in most programs.
- Schedules – The school wants to reduce the density of the classes. They are planning to create more night classes for students on Stockton Campus which located on Pacific Avenue, Stockton, California.
- Academic Calendar – All the undergraduate students will have full-remote classes on the final week (after Thanksgiving).
- Student Residential Life – The housing on Stockton Campus has been redesigned. There will not be two or three student shared-rooms. UOP indicated that this move will not increase student’s costs on housing.
- Student Dining – The school encourages students to have “takeout dining”. They will also create more dining areas on campus.
- Cleaning – The school is setting new cleaning and sanitizing protocols on all three campuses.
- COVID-19 Tracking & Testing – All the students, faculty and staff will use an app to ensure they are safe. The San Francisco campus has already had the plan on screening, testing and tracking COVID-19. The other two campuses are working on the plan.
- Students Affairs & Activities – The events on campus in the fall will be different than the traditional form.
The announcement notes, the students will sign the “Pacific Pact” which is an agreement that students will follow the school’s healthy and safety rules.
The San Francisco Campus is located on 155 fifth Street in the city. According to a statement on the UOP website, currently, the building on SF campus is closed due to the health order. There are limited services available for now.
For more details on the reopening of UOP, visit the school’s website.
