COVID: After Virtual Start UC Berkeley Students Return To In-Person Learning
BERKELEY (KPIX) - College students across California returned to campus Monday for in-person learning after two weeks of virtual classes to start the Spring semester.
"It was really great to be in person with my professor meeting him finally after two weeks online and it's good," said Skyler Naurse, a senior at University of California at Berkeley.
UC Berkeley officials assure there are mitigation procedures in place that makes campus just as safe as everyday life for students. The school has a high vaccination rate, and requires booster shots as well as masks in class. Those who were learning virtually earlier in the pandemic were grateful to switch back.
"It was really difficult for me, it's really hard to pay attention on Zoom, it's also like more mentally tiring, I feel a lot more fatigued at the end of every day and also I just feel so removed from my classes and my professors," said Matthew Fernandes, a student at the School of Law.
For some, COVID-19 has impacted most of their time at the university so far and they worried it would consume the majority of their college career.
"It's definitely good to have things start to go back to normal and experience this in person, the traditional college experience," said Tia Chang, a sophomore at Cal.
University staff said there are not any public health orders in place preventing their decision and as a residential campus, they are part of a trend to come back to the classroom like other UC institutions and colleges in the west.
"Many of the leaders who part of this decision-making are teaching classes, they are coming to classes, this is not in a vacuum, they're walking the walk and talking the talk," said Janet Gilmore, a UC Berkeley spokesperson.
But some worried that the current number or cases and spread should still give the university pause and wondered if they should be returning to campus this week.
"Given the rate of COVID just in the area and just across the country, it feels kind of premature to bring everyone back a little bit," said Langston Glaude, a law student at Berkeley. "I'd be lying if I didn't say that I appreciated being back on campus."
Students also acknowledged that so far they do have some flexibility to stay home if they think that they could spread the virus. KPIX 5 reached out to Berkeley's faculty association to comment on the decision to return to in-person learning but has not heard back.
"I understand the need, it's obviously still an ongoing pandemic but as a college student, I'm happy I get to live in a college town," said Chloe Whyte, a senior on campus.
