Cassandra Garcia is a journalism freshman and Mustang News opinion columnist. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News.
Dear President Armstrong,
My name is Cassandra Garcia and I am a first-generation, first-year journalism major attending Cal Poly. As a student, I have experienced firsthand the impact of the decisions you and your administration have made regarding the COVID-19 pandemic –– specifically the decision of keeping classes in-person during winter quarter.
While many of us are anxious and wish that COVID-19 could go away, we have to face the fact that we must adapt to living with it. To some people, that means attending life like you usually would; however, that isn’t the correct way to go.
Cal Poly needs to transition back to virtual learning as soon as possible. The amount of COVID-19 cases on Cal Poly’s campus is alarming. Cal Poly having to resort to housing their positive tested students in hotels because we have run out of isolation rooms is not only scary, but inefficient. Cal Poly is wasting money on hotels that may not even be necessary if we were to slow the spread by transitioning back to virtual learning.
I understand that Cal Poly takes their “Learn by Doing” motto seriously, but students can’t “Learn by Doing” while sick.
Students have to take two weeks off from school to quarantine themselves when they test positive. Most of these students are already doing a majority of their classes virtually, so what is the problem with allowing all students to go virtual?
Social media pages were started because of the lack of action Cal Poly has done when it comes to listening to what their students have to say. One of those pages is @ComplaintsPoly on Twitter, which, according to their website, gives students a platform to “advocate for student issues.”
Cal Poly students even created a petition to go back to virtual learning. Students, staff and parents have signed the petition to show their agreement with the idea to go back online. We as students have very few ways of advocating for ourselves but one of those methods is through petitioning, yet, at the most recent academic senate meeting, you stated that you cannot make decisions based on petitions.
Since the petition did not change your mind about the situation, Cal Poly Complaints organized a protest for Cal Poly students, staff and parents by encouraging students to not attend their classes on Tuesday, January 18th.
Participating students emailed their professors stating that they were sick and “will not come to class out of respect for you and my peers,” and carbon copied President Armstrong as well. Those who participated also didn’t spend money at Cal Poly food venues or the University store to “financially hurt” the university for a day.
I was a part of this boycott.
Even though the protest didn’t get a lot of attention because the word wasn’t adequately spread, the students’ efforts show that they are voicing their opinions and wanting change.
Even when they don’t achieve their essential purpose, protests are still important because students are fighting for something that matters to them and each effort made is a step closer to the end goal. Students need to voice their opinions because students’ opinions are constantly overlooked by higher-ups. I hope Cal Poly students like myself can help create change on campus and that Cal Poly will soon transition back to virtual classes.
As a first-year college student who graduated high school virtually, I understand the annoyance some students may have of going virtual. Still, if it has to do with students’ health versus inconveniencing them, I think students’ health should win.
Yes, I understand that most students on campus are vaccinated and boosted, but they are still getting sick. If they weren’t affected by this new wave of COVID-19, then maybe the situation would be different, but the reality is that this new wave is spreading from student to student –– vaccinated or not.
We need to look at the bigger picture in this situation: the health of Cal Poly students. If students are sick, they cannot learn. The best option is for Cal Poly to go back to virtual learning. I’m not saying Cal Poly should resume virtually forever, but they should go back until the wave of COVID-19 cases decreases.
Sincerely,
Cassandra Garcia