UC Riverside is preparing to reopen this fall with mostly in-person instruction, a school official announced recently.
“Announcing that we will be predominantly in-person in the fall provides a ray of hope for all of us that we can get through this pandemic and begin seeing some normality return to our lives,” said Thomas M. Smith, UC Riverside’s interim provost and executive vice chancellor, in a statement.
Smith spoke shortly after UC President Michael V. Drake announced a system-wide return to in-person instruction this fall. That move was decided unanimously by the chancellors at all 10 UC campuses.
UC Riverside’s fall semester is scheduled to start on Sept. 23, a little more than six months after it was shut down because of COVID-19. Smith said he’s “optimistic” most students will be vaccinated by the time the fall semester starts.
“If students take advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated when available, we can have more courses in-person,” Smith said.