March 17, 2021
For many, the coronavirus pandemic was expected to last a few weeks, at most. Instead, after more than a year, it’s completely changed higher education in a way that will persist even after campuses have repopulated and California and the U.S. reach some form of herd immunity.
The most significant change has been to instruction and learning, with the vast majority of students and faculty in online classes. But there have been other changes, such as an intense focus on mental health and campuses becoming more flexible with how they operate.
“Higher education isn’t actually known for being nimble,” said Lande Ajose, senior policy adviser for higher education to Gov. Gavin Newsom. “But to take a system, or a set of systems or institutions, where you have an excess of 3 million students and say in the course of two to three weeks, we’ll move students to distance learning is enormous.”