This petition is to ask UCLA to provide students with an online option for this winter and spring, just like what we did during the fall quarter.

Omicron is spreading rapidly in the United States, especially in big cities like Los Angeles. On January 3rd, over 1,000,000 people were tested positive for Covid-19 in the United States. That was for one single day! Los Angeles has seen more than 200,000 confirmed COVID cases over the past 7 days, the highest number in one week since the beginning of the pandemic. Many of my friends have been infected even if they are fully vaccinated. Our parents are also worried about our safety. Especially since some of our parents are in other countries, they are anxious and urge us to fly back.

Safety for all the students and faculty members should be the number one priority. In light of the rapid spread of omicron, even if the school returns offline, some of us are still afraid of going to the classroom and would choose to stay in the dorm and zoom in instead. Therefore, it would be best if the school could create a hybrid system where people who want to stay home can stay home, and people who want to go to class can go to class, and international students could choose to head back to their country.