Following Chapman’s Feb. 7 return to in-person classes for the spring semester, the university’s COVID-19 dashboard lists one known case in the Chapman community as of Feb. 11 — a stark contrast to the start of the fall semester, which saw nearly 300 cases within the first week and a half of instruction.

However, these low cases may be partially due to Chapman’s limitations to COVID-19 testing access in order to ensure all students can fulfill updated return-to-campus protocol. Because of these changes, less students have been tested on campus within the past few weeks.

Prior to the implementation of restrictions to on-campus COVID-19 tests, many students returned to campus for interterm at the height of the spread of the Omicron variant in the U.S. Chapman saw a surge in cases, peaking Jan. 7 with 284 active cases in the campus community. 

“I think that the (university’s) most monumental measure (in curbing COVID-19 transmission) was starting with remote learning while students got tested before coming back to campus,” said Jamie Ceman, vice president of strategic marketing and communications. “A lot of travel obviously happens over winter break, and that certainly increases the risk of bringing COVID-19 to the campus community.”

California will lift the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated individuals Feb. 16, and Orange County has announced it will follow state guidelines by dropping the mandate. Conversely, Los Angeles County and Santa Clara County are among some counties that will continue to require the wearing of masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.

Despite the easing mask requirements and the cautious optimism that accompanies a low positivity rate, Struppa announced in a Feb. 11 email that Chapman’s indoor mask mandate will remain in place for the Orange and Rinker Health Science campuses.

Many students have expressed concern over changing mask guidelines, pushing for Chapman to provide students with high-quality masks on campus. Several students have also come forward with allegations that some faculty members have violated CU safety protocols in the classroom. Despite these allegations, enforcement of Chapman’s mask mandate remains to be seen.

Jeffery Goad, Chair of the Chapman University School of Pharmacy, emphasized that COVID-19 protocols are continuously evolving. 

“A year ago we didn't have vaccines and we didn't have the vaccination rates we have right now,” Goad told The Panther. “Just like the state and county we are all trending down in our case rates and our percent positivity — we seem to be heading in the right direction.”

Other universities took a similar approach in delaying the return to in-person classes after winter break and requiring negative COVID-19 tests to access campus. 

The University of Southern California (USC) announced Dec. 24 that it was temporarily returning to remote learning for the first week of the spring semester. However, a Jan. 7 email from USC Provost Charles Zukowsi informed the community that the start of in-person instruction would be delayed another week — from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24 — to allow students time to receive the required booster shot and COVID-19 test. 

“This (Omicron) surge is unlike others, and as a community, we are in a much better position to maneuver the course of COVID-19 than at any previous time of the pandemic,” Zukowsi said in his email to the USC community. “Our high vaccination rate, booster requirement, strong testing program and masking precautions will help us through.”

Likewise, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) delayed the start of in-person instruction from Jan. 3 to Jan. 31, requiring that eligible students receive a booster shot and take a COVID-19 test 72 hours before accessing campus. 

Erika Cao, a freshman double major in international studies and sociology at UCI, expressed frustration with the university’s lack of communication regarding return-to-campus protocols in an opinion article she wrote for its campus newspaper, The New University. 

“The way that UCI approached communicating when we would go back to campus and on what basis this decision was made was a little bit unclear,” Cao told The Panther. “ I needed to plan when I should arrive — at least seven days before my first in person class — but they kept pushing it back, and it was very last minute.”

Cao is not alone in being concerned about returning to in-person instruction amid the Omicron variant. Lucie Scheffold, a freshman undeclared major at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), told The Panther she is concerned about the university’s current case numbers. 

Their dashboard shows 48 active COVID-19 cases among the student population as of Feb. 10 — a high case rate for a university with only 7,000 undergraduates.

“Cases are definitely higher now than they were in the fall,” Scheffold said. “If it was up to me, I would’ve rather done a month online than only two weeks, which is what we did after break. It felt really risky to me.”

Cao remains sympathetic to universities struggling to create return-to-campus protocols that work for everyone.

“I am sympathetic to the difficulty in establishing a set of health protocols for so many different people,” Cao said. “COVID-19 is just innately ever-changing. Everyone has to be flexible with this sort of thing.”

According to Ceman, changes in state regulation, coupled with declining cases, create the impression that things are “going back to normal.”

“Because there is such fatigue around this, people are going to be less diligent in following the protocols and especially as the cases decline around us,” Ceman said. “The biggest challenge will be just getting people to stay diligent in following the current protocols.”

Goad, a national vaccine speaker, remains hopeful that by getting community members vaccinated, Chapman can keep its case totals low.

“Moving forward, we are keeping an eye on the numbers and pushing as hard as we can to get people vaccinated,” Goad said. “We know that it is the one measure that works better than masks — better than everything — at protecting us and keeping people safe.”