As the University of California Riverside plans to provide 95% in-person instruction for the upcoming Winter quarter, they are expressing a lack of consideration for the safety of students, teacher assistants (TAs), staff, and faculty. Undergraduate and graduate students alike have had to deal with their academics being put before their own health because of the pressure to quickly transition to in-person learning. The University of California Riverside’s in-person instruction model has been too rushed and is detrimental to all those involved.

The University of California Riverside has failed to provide enough information to protect students, TAs, staff, and faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many locations and organizations on campus have been exposed to positive cases, yet the University of California Riverside has made no effort to clearly and effectively announce these cases to students. There are many classes on campus that have had positive COVID-19 cases in which staff, faculty, students, and TAs are entering since there are no active announcements about these exposures. Many students are also unaware of where to get COVID-19 testing or have the means to be able to get testing. For example, students enter non-medical locations, such as The Well, in hopes of getting COVID-19 testing, without realizing that they may be spreading the virus to others at those locations.

In addition, the UCR Daily Wellness Check has not been an effective tool to determine COVID-19 exposure. Many students do not actively fill out the Wellness Check throughout the week as there are no potential incentives or repercussions to fill it out. Along with that, there are no type of daily reminders that go out to students to help promote the filling out of the Wellness Check. 

To continue, many students, TAs, staff, and faculty are dealing with the pandemic in magnitudes of ways that cause an in-person agenda to be ineffective. For example, student parents are currently very stressed in creating effective Winter 2022 schedules that will help them and their children. In contrast, there are many issues where some of these student parents are unable to find sitters to come multiple times throughout the day. Many of these student parents are also living with children who have yet to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Other students are currently living in households, whether in the Riverside area or not, that have members that are immunocompromised or at high risk for COVID-19. Some students are also currently not able to secure housing in Riverside as many have lived at home, whether that be out of the state or country as a whole. 

Overall, having all in-person education with little to no remote or hybrid options will be putting many lives at danger. Following that, the University of California Riverside is not equipped to handle all these students, staff, and faculty members back on campus. As seen by UCR Dining Services, there is a clear staff shortage that has caused campus to have very limited access to meals throughout the day. This is also evident in the fact that there is currently only one dining hall, Glasgow, open for all residents on-campus. Longer lines and little staff will continue to cause issues for the culture of the University of California Riverside.

The University of California Riverside faculty have already expressed disinterest in providing a highly necessary and desired hybrid learning environment for its students. The Associated Students of the University of California Riverside (ASUCR) has expressed support for remote options for students evidenced by SR-F21-005, a resolution that advocates for recorded lectures in an effort to maintain student participation, no matter the circumstances. A follow-up with the Academic Senate, the faculty-driven senate body at the University of California Riverside, produced no response on their end, thus solidifying the university’s lack of interest to find solutions for this issue. 

In signing this petition, we express our strong support for remote options to be offered to the University of California Riverside students, TAs, staff, and faculty members as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Decisions such as mandating hybrid options should not occur on an individual basis when so many students are still being negatively affected by the ongoing pandemic. As the University of California Riverside has poured money into providing resources for hybrid learning and more rooms for increasing engagement (RISE) in collaboration with Xcite, they are wasting these resources by not mandating these technologies to be used to their fullest potential. 

Mandate remote learning options for students now!