The usual fall back-to-school bustle in Long Beach will be missing this year.

The few students who will be moving into dorms at Cal State Long Beach are doing so in shifts. Biology students at Long Beach City College will get dissection kits mailed to them. Sports are canceled until at least 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed just about everything we do, but especially schools. While K-12 schools will not be able to reopen until Los Angeles County gets off the state monitoring list— which could be soon—colleges and universities are planning for online teaching throughout the entire fall semester.

This is as colleges throughout the country have opened their doors to students only to abruptly switch to online learning after outbreaks among students.

LBCC

The switch to online has been a “massive undertaking,” according to Kathleen Scott, vice president of academic affairs at LBCC. Administrators are working to make their programs as accessible as possible by giving and loaning out tools and materials necessary for the myriad classes offered at the college. They’re putting together bags of supplies for art students, loaning out sewing machines for fashion students, and even mailing dissection kits for biology classes, Scott said.

All classes at LBCC will be offered this year, with the exception of the phlebotomy and certified nursing assistant programs—the only two programs the college wasn’t able to let finish over the summer because they require learning hours in hospitals or nursing homes, Scott said. Nursing homes have been cut off from outside visitors since they became an epicenter of the pandemic. Scott said administrators didn’t want to start a new cohort of students for these programs when they still need the last cohort to finish.

For most trades, particularly the ones considered essential, lab classes will still be on campus, Scott said. This includes programs like welding, automotive technology, horticulture and health sciences. Scott said out of the 23,000 full and part-time students that attend LBCC, about 3,000 will be on campus for these labs.

Luckily, Scott said, LBCC has had time to prepare for health and safety protocols, including having everyone wear masks and sanitize and thorough classroom cleanings. Students who had to stop lab classes completely in the spring were able to complete them over the summer.

“We’ve been through this all summer,” Scott said. She noted that the college is seeing about the same amount of students enroll as they have in recent years and they’re still encouraging people to register for classes.

Students will also have to fill out a pre-screening form before each in-person lab to ensure they’re not experiencing symptoms or have been in contact with any positive cases.

For some Long Beach college students, their schools staying closed is a relief.

“I’d rather stay home, as much as I’d prefer to be in class,” said Ulises Maldonado, a 20-year-old Computer Engineering and Computer Science major. “I feel that it isn’t worth the risk.”

The biggest thing Maldonado is worried about is not being able to focus during his online classes—math and physics can be hard to grasp through a Zoom class. He also received his first B in an online calculus class over the summer that he felt didn’t translate well to the format, making him more concerned.

Scott said professors by now have all completed training for teaching online classes and students have a training they can complete for learning online.

“We know many students would not take online classes if they had the option,” Scott said.

The school is also piloting a program with math and science students called Proctorio, a software that is supposed to help ensure students don’t cheat by locking their screens onto the test or using their webcams to track their eyes, Scott said.

This worries Maldonado when it comes to accessibility: As a technology help desk worker at the school, he sees a lot of students without access to reliable laptops, let alone computers with webcams.

Scott said administrators are cognizant of this, as well as privacy concerns, which is why the college is only piloting the program now and encouraging professors to check in with students, use different types of assessments and be flexible. The CARES Act also allows students to apply for aid and be provided with a Chromebook or a hotspot if they need reliable internet connection.

CSULB

CSULB has also gone through a massive switch to all online learning for about 39,000 students this year. While administrators don’t have the finalized numbers yet, it will be an increase from last year if this number stays the same, spokesman Jeff Cook said.

The university has given detailed information to students regarding how they can and cannot access campus. For now, only authorized personnel are allowed on campus and students need to get permission to go on campus. Once they get that permission, they need to complete a pre-entry screening form, wear face masks and adhere to all physical distancing requirements.

Ariel Gilligan is one CSULB student who will have to access campus for her biological sciences graduate program. The 30-year-old CSULB graduate is starting the program in the fall and is resigned to the fact that it will be a different experience than what she signed up for.

“A lot of us have had to get special permission to get on campus,” Gilligan said. “Luckily with what I want to do doesn’t seem like there will be too much exposure risk.”

She is planning on focusing on marine ecology, which involves field work. Gilligan is also signed up to be a teacher’s aid, which will entail her helping to teach over Zoom meetings. Some lab classes will also be taking home kits.

“We just had a meeting today and there was talk of people taking kidneys home, but I’m not sure if that’s actually going to happen,” she said.

For some undergraduate students and those experiencing homelessness, the university has opened up its dorms—albeit with far less students.

Cook said the university anticipates about 400 students on move-in day, which began Wednesday. According to the CSULB’s information page, all these students will get their own rooms. Students will also have to wear masks and limit their socializing to no more than seven people at a time (with 6-foot distancing).

Dormed students will also be placed based on their year and major to limit the number of people they regularly come in contact with and sign an agreement “with expectations for social distancing and transmission mitigation,” according to the university.

Food will also look different: Residential dining will be take-out only, prepared by staff members instead of self-service. A majority of the food places on campus will be shuttered, except for the Outpost, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Subway. The hair salon in the University Student Union, Elektric Hair, will be open with limited hours, according to the university. The university bookstore and conveinence stores will also be open. 

Notably, the library is likely to be closed all semester, with services provided remotely.

“The effort to slowly and safely grow the number of people physically on site requires a combination of personal and community responsibility in addition to the many safeguards we have in place,” university president Jane Close Conoley said in a letter to the campus.