Santa Rosa Junior College announced that classes will continue online only through the Spring 2021 semester due to the coronavirus pandemic, SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong said in an email Thursday.
Dr. Chong expressed that the safety of students, faculty and the community is the highest priority at SRJC. College leadership made the decision to remain online in light of the “current infection and mortality rates in Sonoma County.”
SRJC will not hold any mass gatherings on campus during this time and has not yet made a decision regarding an in-person commencement service for spring semester.
The district intends to create a list of classes requiring in-person instruction that will be presented to the County Department of Health. All courses requiring in-person instruction, including health sciences and public safety training, will be included in this process in an effort to approve classes for socially distant instruction.
Student response to the announcement was mixed.
“I’m struggling because I don’t have a place to concentrate and I’m working full time on top of it,” said SRJC nursing student Angela Alfaro, 23. “I relied on the quiet space in the library, and a screaming toddler in the house doesn’t help with concentration.”
But Michelle Knutson a 25-year-old Natural Resource Management student was pleased. “Honestly, I have been happy about how decisive the JC has been. When this first happened, there was no waffling about it, and I think they made the right decision again,” she said. “It still sucks not to have classes in person. Being a Natural Resource Management major, I hope they can come up with a system where we can still have field days outside.”
All competitive sports for the current semester have been rescheduled to Spring 2021, according to the California Community College Athletic Association.
Students must remain off-campus unless they have permission or enrollment in one of the few remaining in-person classes at the campus.
For more information, you can visit SRJC’s coronavirus information site at https://www.santarosa.edu/coronavirus-information.
