Colleges and universities shift plans amid omicron spread

Colleges and universities shift plans amid omicron spread

The strategy behind the first weeks of online-only classes is for campus communities — students, faculty, lecturers and campus staff — to ensure that they will rest up and isolate to ensure that, one way or another, they can reduce the likelihood of spreading COVID when they get back on campus. “This will allow for at least one cycle of testing, sequestration, and re-testing for appropriate members of our community, especially our returning residential students, and continues the testing requirements and opportunities we practiced throughout the fall quarter,” UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman said in an open letter to his campus community. “The result of these testing protocols will give us the information necessary to decide how quickly we can return to in-person instruction.”