SRJC to remain in remote mode for summer session

Facing lingering uncertainty about the spread of COVID-19 and the breadth of vaccine deployment in Sonoma County, Santa Rosa Junior College officials announced last week that classes and student services will remain in remote mode for the summer session.

“Out of an abundance of caution and putting the health and safety of employees and student first, this was the most logical conclusion we could come up with,” said Frank Chong, the college’s president.

Chong said school leaders had to make a decision about the format of the summer term in January to give teachers enough time to decide to whether they want to sign up to lead courses, and to ensure that the course list goes out to students on time.

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that employees and students want certainty,” Chong said. “They may not like the answer, but at least they know what they’ve got to face.”

Chong said that vaccination rates in Sonoma County are still unlikely to cover enough people to approach herd immunity by the time the summer term starts on June 21. Scientists have not reached a consensus about what the herd immunity threshold for COVID-19 might be, with estimates ranging from somewhere between 50% and 90%, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

Even with the vaccination rate ramping up to 2,000 people a day, as announced by the Board of Supervisors on Thursday, the 150 days until the start of the summer term make for a tight window to reach levels that could potentially approach herd immunity.

“There’s still a lot of unknowns,” Chong said. The future of the state government’s color-coded tier system for reopening is another consideration officials factored in.

“I think people think with vaccinations, the tier system goes away,” Chong said. But that’s not necessarily the case.

With a smaller group of students attending summer session — rarely more than 10,000 in a given year — the risks outweigh the potential benefits of returning the majority to classrooms, Chong said. Some classes in what are determined “essential” subjects, such as health sciences and public safety, have been able to include in-person instruction, with proper precautions, since the fall semester.

“Santa Rosa Junior College is open for business,” he said. “We have wonderful support services for financial aid, we’re offering a lot of classes.”

Chong said administrators will make a determination about the format of the fall semester sometime in March, to allow for the same opportunity to plan.

“We’ll try to transition back to live instruction as soon as it’s safe,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.