The student body of Chico State received an email today, Monday February 8th, stating that only 20-30% of Fall 2021 classes would be offered in person, almost exactly two months after receiving an email on December 9th, 2020 from President Gayle Hutchinson stating that the University would be planning on returning to in-person learning for Fall 2021. Throughout the last academic year here at Chico State 16,000 students continued to pay full tuition of over $7,000 a semester for online learning, and for many months we were without access to many resources that are supposed to be included in tuition such as the WREC (Wildcat Recreation Center) and access to campus resources such as the library. Not to mention that at the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester, Gayle Hutchinson allowed over 1,000 freshmen to move into on campus housing without requiring negative COVID tests before their arrival, and not providing any required COVID testing during the three weeks that they lived in the dorms before being kicked out. Because of her poor planning, the on-campus students were forced to find new housing in less than a week. Other CSU's have scheduled weekly or even bi-weekly COVID testing for their students, however Chico State and Gayle Hutchinson have failed to offer these resources to students. Many of us students in the past two months have signed leases for the Fall 2021 semester here in Chico, only for the University to go back on their statement that they were planning for the return of in-person classes. Because of the closure of campus, many jobs have become unavailable to students who depended on them. Every day I drive past Notre Dame Elementary school, just a mere 4 blocks from the Chico State Campus and see hundreds of kids playing In the school yard. Why is it that they can go to school and their tiny administration can figure out a way to continue in-person learning but our California State Institution cannot? 

I also would like to know who is it that decides what 20-30% of students have the right to In-person classes while the rest of the student body sits back and watches their money go down the drain. The online education that I have experienced during the past academic year pales in comparison to the in-person learning that we received before. I think that I can speak for the majority of the student body when I say that I feel behind in almost every aspect of my education because of online learning. 

We, the student body of Chico State are so disappointed in the administration from Gayle Hutchinson and Chico State. 

Though I am not sure if this petition will have any effect on the outcome of the Fall 2021 semester, it is important that we stand together in solidarity and do not let our voices go unheard.