The Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees on Thursday evening explored proposed plans to resume on-campus operations and a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for students and employees ahead of the fall semester.
The trustees and college officials discussed for roughly an hour the topic of returning to on-campus services, but members did not vote on the agenda item during a special board meeting held virtually. The matter will be brought back before the SBCC Board of Trustees at a future meeting.
“This is an interesting discussion,” board president Peter Haslund said. “I’m glad we are having it, and to be continued.”
The board also debated a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all employees and students who will return to campus, but put off an official decision to learn more details on the topic. The proposed policy will be brought back before the SBCC board at an upcoming meeting.
“I am comfortable with discussing this further,” SBCC Trustee Marsha Croninger said.
During Thursday’s remote meeting, SBCC Superintendent/President Utpal Goswami and college officials provided a presentation on tentative plans to phase in on-campus services during the summer and fall of 2021.
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, reopening plans are designed “with flexibility in mind,” Goswami said.
“Because of experience and what we have observed, and because of how we are impacting our students, we have to come back to in-person operations in a small way,” he said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that the state’s color-coded reopening tier system is slated to end on June 15 if COVID-19 case rates stay low and vaccine supply is sufficient.
SBCC is proposing to begin a phased-in return to in-person work as soon as June 15 on SBCC’s Main, Wake and Schott campuses. College officials said the exact date of return — June 15 — is consistent with the governor’s announced timeline.
“At this point, the question is, ‘Why are we coming back to campus?’ Very simple. Students need it,” Goswami told the SBCC Board of Trustees. “And why June 15? It is the date the governor announced. How will we come back? We will negotiate, and that’s why we have time from now until June 15 to negotiate whatever we want to negotiate.”
Staff and faculty interested in returning sooner can do so, and they are advised to work with their supervisor to arrange for return to campus authorization, according to college officials.
SBCC is tentatively targeting a “mandatory” return to campus for all employees on Aug. 16.
“While many faculty will continue to teach remotely in fall 2021, many of them will have to meet obligations on campus,” the college said in a statement. “Employees should make arrangements for child care or other domestic needs for the fall so that they are able to work from campus.”
SBCC adjusted its schedule of course offerings for spring 2021 in response to the global pandemic. In fall 2020, SBCC held the majority of its courses online, with a small percentage of classes taught face-to-face.
According to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, community colleges in the state have “operated almost entirely remotely” amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Following the presentation on returning to in-person services, board vice president Kate Parker said there’s “a lot to digest here. … Our employees deserve the chance to digest what is here and make their suggestions, too.”
The SBCC Board of Trustees heard roughly 40 minutes of live public input, and members of the public were granted up to three minutes to speak before discussion of the two agenda-related items.
“Our return to face-to-face instruction is an urgent and critically important issue for our students, and vaccinations are necessary for our safe return,” said Robbie Fischer, who teaches medical microbiology at SBCC. “It can’t be said often enough that vaccines are universally regarded as one of the very few top public health achievements in all of human history, and COVID-19 is a once-in-a-generation public health catastrophe.”
Christy Grant, academic counselor at SBCC, said that “the pandemic is not over.”
People spoke in favor and against mandatory vaccinations for staff and students at SBCC.
“For me, it’s a matter of personal choice,” speaker Jill Rivera said. “It boils down to basically a principle of my body, my choice.”
The COVID-19 vaccine gives people “the greatest level of safety to stop the spread of the virus and safe lives,” said Gwyer Schuyler, an academic counselor at SBCC.
“It is my strong belief that we must first and foremost protect the health of students and employees the best way possible,” Schuyler said. “And the best way possible is by requiring vaccinations once they are FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved.”
The 14-page advisory document from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office stated that “widespread vaccination will be the most effective way to ensure campus safety, yet the emergency status of the vaccines and implementation concerns have prevented a clear consensus about the advisability of such mandates.”
The document said, “Whether and how a vaccine mandate should be implemented within a community college district, or on a campus, will require consideration of many local, college-specific and individual factors.”
According to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, the vast majority of higher education institutions are at least “strongly encouraging” all members to be vaccinated, but it is likely that a “significant number” of employees and students will remain unvaccinated against COVID-19.
The University of California and the California State University announced in April that the institutions would require all students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campuses in the fall, pending that a vaccine has obtained formal approval from the FDA and is sufficiently available.
SBCC Trustee Veronica Gallardo expressed her concerns about mandatory vaccine requirements at the public community college.
“It’s not our job to impose more fear and anxiety on people, telling them that they are not going to be able to access the fullness of what the Santa Barbara City College mission is because we are going to mandate something,” Gallardo said. “Something that is a conversation between their health care provider, their families and themselves. I’m most concerned as an SBCC trustee that we would be closing off access to our mission.”
SBCC Trustee Jonathan Abboud mentioned that Santa Barbara County Public Health officials say the region needs to reach the 80% threshold of vaccinated residents to obtain herd immunity against COVID-19.
“The best way to get to that 80%, or one of the best way, is to mandate vaccines at education institutions just like UC and CSU (Cal State) are doing,” Abboud said. “This is a no-brainer for me to do. It’s the only way to have a healthy and safe campus.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
