Departments within the College of the Arts are anticipating more in-person opportunities aside from classes for students enrolling in the fall 2021 semester.
Currently, Long Beach State anticipates approximately half of all fall 2021 classes will be held in person or hybrid. All plans are contingent on city public health guidelines, like the decision for the fall 2021 in-person courses, and may change if necessary.
The College of the Arts includes the Department of Film and Electronic Arts, School of Art, Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, Department of Dance, Department of Design and Department of Theater Arts.
Johannes Müller Stosch, director of Bob Cole, said in an email that the department plans on having large and small ensembles rehearse and perform in person with masks provided to students while safety protocols are practiced. These ensembles include choirs, bands, orchestra and jazz ensembles, which have worked and performed virtually amid a year of distanced-learning, and has also affected revenue for Bob Cole.
The department has also “been approved to also utilize spaces in the Carpenter Center,” Stosch said.
Stosch said that large ensembles may be split into two medium-sized groups due to social distancing, but other in-person opportunities will include the use of practice rooms at CSULB as well as “hands-on music education and instrument method classes.”
The 61 soundproof practice rooms are just some of the facilities that students in Bob Cole use for their education, and many students working during a year of virtual learning had to get creative finding the time and space to practice their instruments at home.
Stosch said the department hopes to have students’ private lessons to return back on campus.
For film students, Anne D’Zmura, department chair, said in an email that the department plans to provide “in-person filmmaking opportunities” as well as create both remote and on-campus access to department computer labs.
D’Zmura said that the department also anticipates that some student events “including a variation of our student mixer” will be held on campus.
Other departments within COTA also benefit from increased access to in-person spaces like the theater department, which normally utilizes stages at CSULB as well as the campus costume and design shops for technical theater students. Currently, classes like costume technical skills and acting are being offered in person, but it has not yet been announced whether productions will be performed for live audiences.
CSULB anticipates that the university will fully return to in-person learning by spring 2022.