Earlier this year, the campus sent out an email stating, "That we will be returning to in-person learning, requiring all students to return to campus". They also proposed that they want to reach a goal of 10,000 students for the upcoming fall semester, making this the largest incoming freshman class. Since the campus now requires all freshmen to stay on campus for 2 years. This means that the second, third, fourth, and Fifth years would not be guaranteed housing. This would normally not seem so bad. However, housing in Merced has become a Hay Stack inside a Needle (I know it was said backward, it's to emphasize how bad it is).

On top of that, most students come from low-income families, where parents do not have the money to help and support their child/student. Which leaves them with not many options for finding a way to be on campus and attend class. They could try to commute from home, but many students live 2 hours or more away from the University, and the majority of them don’t drive or have a car. Even if they were able to travel, the cost of a parking pass, the struggle to finding a parking spot, and gas for traveling would all become too expensive.

The solution to these problems is a Blended Learning system. If the campus were to offer Zoom and in-person classes, this could help students achieve credits and graduate on time.

A few ways this could be implemented.

1. Professors could teach a class while being live on Zoom.

2. Professors could have pre-recorded lectures posted on Cat Courses and have in-person classes as optional for review. Also, have a discussion board on Cat Courses for Questions.

3. Have an in-person lecture on one day and a zoom lecture on another.

The possibilities are endless, but no matter what option they decide to choose. Tests and Exams for the classes will need to be available on Cat Courses for all the students. This will make it fair for all students to have an equal opportunity. As well it can help with the transition phase for students because they just spent a whole academic year taking classes online. They will need time to adjust to in-person classes again.