Cal Poly requires students to get COVID-19 booster shots, won’t shift to virtual classes
Cal Poly students will need to receive COVID-19 booster shots to be considered fully immunized and eligible for on-campus instruction and activities during the upcoming winter quarter, which begins on Jan. 3.
The California State University system announced the new policy on Wednesday morning, joining the University of California, which is implementing a similar policy.
CSU said in a statement that system-wide, boosters must “be received by February 28, 2022, or six months after an individual received the final dose of the original vaccination, whichever is later,” but that individual campuses may choose to set earlier deadlines based on local conditions.
Cal Poly will require all students accessing campus during the winter quarter to receive their booster shots by Jan. 20. Those who do not meet that requirement must be tested for COVID-19 every three days during the quarter.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong laid out the new guidelines Wednesday in an email to the campus community.
“The major message of this note is simple: Get a COVID-19 booster as soon as you can!” Armstrong wrote. “Fighting a pandemic is a group effort. I have been very proud of how well our community has done so far, and I ask you to keep doing the right thing, for everyone’s sake.”
The policy — which also applies to employees accessing campus — will continue to include medical and religious exemptions.
“Vaccination, including a booster when eligible, remains our most effective strategy against infection and severe disease,” CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said in a prepared statement.
“This is particularly important in light of the rapid rise of cases of COVID-19 throughout the state and nation as the Omicron variant spreads. Implementing the booster requirement now will help mitigate the potential spread of the variant on campuses as they repopulate in January after the winter break.”
A formal update to the public university system’s vaccine mandate is pending a meet-and-confer process with labor unions, according to the CSU statement.
Cal Poly not shifting to virtual classes to start winter quarter
Despite the new policy, Cal Poly will not transition classes to all-virtual instruction, which some UC campuses are choosing to do to begin the next term.
“We continue to plan to be in person at this time, but we are staying in close contact with our local public health officials and our own health experts and will continue to adjust to the evolving nature of the pandemic as appropriate,” wrote university spokesperson Cynthia Lambert in an email to The Tribune.
As of Dec. 13, about 94% of Cal Poly’s student population was reported to be fully vaccinated (at least two doses) against COVID-19, accounting for 21,140 students of the 22,456 enrolled.
About 92% of university faculty and staff were reported to be inoculated against the virus, according to the university.
All students, regardless of vaccination status, who will access Cal Poly’s campus at any time will be required to be tested for COVID-19 during the first week of the winter quarter. The university is offering testing on campus.
To avoid long lines at the campus testing site, the university asks all unvaccinated and vaccinated first-year and new transfer students to be tested on Jan. 2 or 3.
Students living on campus must be tested for COVID-19 by Jan. 5, according to the university.
Those living off campus are advised to test on the following days depending on the first letter of their last name:
- Jan. 6: Last names A-G
- Jan. 7: Last names H-M
- Jan. 8: Last names N-R
- Jan. 9: Last names S-Z
Some UC schools moving online for start of new year
The CSU announcement comes one day after University of California President Michael Drake instructed chancellors of the 10 UC campuses to craft plans for a safe return to campus in January, which includes a booster requirement.
“Under existing UC policy, students, faculty, and staff are required to keep their vaccination status up to date,” Drake also wrote. “The policy mandates COVID-19 boosters for those who are eligible.”
UC Davis Chancellor Gary May announced Tuesday the campus will enforce a UC system-wide mandate for a booster vaccine for all faculty, staff and students who do not have a vaccine exemption currently in place. By Jan. 31, everyone on campus must upload proof of receiving a vaccination booster through the UC Davis Health e-Messaging portal.
The seven UC undergraduate campuses that operate on a quarter schedule, with the 2022 winter quarter beginning Jan. 3, said in separate announcements Tuesday that they will begin the quarter on a remote-learning basis: UC Davis will begin online-only for the first week of classes Jan. 3-7; and UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz will go virtual for the first two weeks, planning to return in person on Jan. 18.
UC Berkeley and UC Merced, which are on the semester system and aren’t scheduled to return from winter break until Jan. 18, have not yet announced any change in return to campus, nor has UC San Francisco, a medical school on the quarter system.
As of early Wednesday, CSU campuses had not announced a transition to remote learning. Most of CSU’s 23 campuses return from winter break later than the UC campuses, according to their academic calendars, starting their spring semester Jan. 24. A handful begin classes the week of Jan. 18.
Cal Poly has the earliest start in the CSU system, returning Jan. 3, and the Maritime Academy in Vallejo returns Jan. 10.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:46 AM.
