Students, faculty and staff petition for online, hybrid classes

A student who works 27 hours a week with two jobs to support herself, Zoe Laub found remote learning less demanding on her mental health because she was able to simply log on to her classes anywhere without having to worry about hurrying home from classes to change for work and catching a bus – which also allowed her to have a more flexible work schedule and get more sleep.

But following USC’s announcement of in-person classes for the fall semester, Laub, a senior majoring in English creative writing, found herself part of conversations online regarding concerns about limited remote options.

After seeing concerns from students about how returning to campus may affect the health of family members or themselves, international students facing difficulties accessing their courses, and many students concerned about how the arrival of thousands of students to Los Angeles might affect the campus’s surrounding community, Laub created a petition Aug. 13 urging USC to offer online or hybrid options for students and faculty for the fall semester.  

“For me, [online learning has] actually been a lot more convenient and easier on my mental health just because I have to work to support myself, and so the commute and just having to deal with the time that takes, it was kind of stressful,” Laub said. “But this petition is more … for students who are at risk, faculty who are at risk and their family members and international students who are facing difficulty getting access to their courses, more than people who just prefer online format.”

With 1,600 signatures at the time of publication, the petition cites concerns about returning to full capacity, in-person classes due to increasing cases among L.A. in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals as a result of the Delta variant. 

“I feel like the University isn’t really prepared,” Laub said. “I think they could have been but they’re trying to quickly return to a sense of normalcy, when the reality is we’re still in a global pandemic.”

The petition, addressed to President Carol Folt, urges the University to give students, who do not feel safe returning to campus, the option to attend the semester remotely. The petition does not demand a fully online model, Laub said. 

In a student media briefing Thursday, Chief Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman said 42 positive coronavirus cases appeared from the 10,000 tests performed between Aug. 15 and 18. — a lower positivity rate than the week before. Cases are expected to peak about two weeks after students move in and then start dropping by week three and four, she said.

Alyssa Delarosa, a senior majoring in psychology, worries that measures such as Trojan Checks and weekly coronavirus tests will not be enough to stop the virus from rapidly spreading on campus, as USC hosted thousands of Trojans attending welcome events and plans for most classes to return to “business as usual.” 

Even as Delarosa looks forward to experiencing her senior year in person after more than a year of online learning and as events had been scheduled to resume, she said she doesn’t feel safe seeking out the in-person college experience and will spend most of her time in isolation.

“I really want to return to campus more than anything, … but the Delta variant has other plans,” Delarosa said. “The ICUs are filling up again. So many kids are getting [the coronavirus] now too, and with all that going on, I want to put my safety first before having the experience of being on campus. My safety is a top priority, and it’s just not safe to return right now.”

Maria Robles, a freshman majoring in communication, is also concerned that required coronavirus testing will become more lenient throughout the course of the semester.

“To get everybody tested once or twice a week, especially with 40,000 plus students, that’s going to be a hassle and eventually, over the weeks, it’s going to get more and more lenient,” Robles said. 

In the student media briefing, Van Orman said that if cases “go way down” over the course of the semester, the University could drop the testing requirement. 

Emails obtained by the Daily Trojan from professors — including representatives from faculty council and senate groups — to USC administrators expressed concerns about returning to campus. However, various administrators allegedly told faculty that students don’t share their concerns.

Anonymous posts on the Instagram page @sconcernedstaff, which posts anonymous confessions from faculty members, shared the experiences of employees taking public transportation to USC despite public health concerns, dealing with the stress of returning to work with an immunocompromised infant at home and concerns about poor work conditions, including a lack of windows and poor ventilation.

“We are losing well-trained staff,” wrote @sconcernedstaff in an Instagram post on Aug. 19.  “In more than 15 years at USC, I have always been proud to be a part of the Trojan family. We have overcome several tough transitions and defended the University’s reputation because we believed in it. But watching my colleagues struggle with this decision hurts … We are being asked to risk our personal and family’s lives in some cases unnecessarily.” 

Robles said she also wants online class options because she believes it is important to protect the surrounding USC community and those who are immunocompromised.

“There’s so many people who have [immunocompromised] systems, and it’s just very concerning,” Robles said. “​​It’s just best to have an online option for the sake of safety and protecting others, because it really does have devastating effects.”