Spring 2021 to offer just 108 courses on campus, 8,274 online

For the second consecutive semester in the Beach’s history, Long Beach State’s spring 2021 term will be held mainly online, a decision that was made in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Fewer than 200 course sections are being offered in person this spring, campus officials said, while 8,274 are being conducted virtually. Last semester,

Of the in-person spring courses, 108 are being held on campus and 90 are off campus, according to Neal Schnoor, chief of staff. The university is also offering 163 hybrid sections.

The total amount of courses with a face-to-face element comes out to about 4% of all those offered in spring of 2021.

“Similar to last fall, we do not anticipate more than 350 students on any given day of the semester and will likely average no more than 200 Monday through Thursday and 100 on Fridays,” Schnoor said.

According to President Jane Close Conoley, the university saw roughly 1,000 individuals on campus each day in the fall 2020 term. About two thirds those individuals were faculty and staff members.

Corry Colonna, executive director of housing and residential life, said that about 210 students will be living on campus this spring, a decrease from 239 students last fall. In previous semesters, the residential colleges housed over 2,000 students.

These on-campus residents include student athletes as the Beach has been approved to resume conference play for the spring season, the Big West Conference Board of Directors announced earlier this month.

With in-person instruction resuming this upcoming fall, Conoley expects to see about 50% attendance, up from 4% this spring. She said that masks will likely still be required as long-term effects of the vaccine and lasting immunity both remain uncertain.

According to Jody Cormack, vice provost of academic programs and dean of graduate studies, the university has “no projections for fall 2021 at this time.”

Official campus data will be available in the coming weeks, administrators said.