By JAJUAN BROWN & JULISSA SANCHEZ
Staff Writers
The Office of Student Success announced March 30 that the summer 2020 sessions will be held completely online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As instruction for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester will continue virtually, the summer 2020 sessions are to follow that path.
An announcement made March 30 on the Cal Poly Pomona summer index states, “Summer registration for face-to-face classes is temporarily suspended while we examine which courses can be offered in a virtual format. We are making every effort to ensure that the courses you need to graduate are offered.”
Registration for summer courses opened March 4 and is set to close April 22. As of now, some of the department courses offered include engineering, theater (courses privy to proximity interaction), kinesiology and health. Other course options being offered can be found under the “altered summer curriculum” section on the CPP summer session website.
According to the same statement made by the Office of Student Success, CPP is working with the California State University Chancellor’s Office and Academic Senate to evaluate the option of credit/no credit option for all courses offered in the summer 2020 semester. No mention of tuition changes has been made, but there is a temporary halt on the fee deadline which was set to be April 23. Those worried about financial aid need not to be, as financial aid will still be offered within a week of enrolling for the summer semester.
Third-year manufacturing engineering student Emmanuel Delgado-Saucedo describes his frustration with this forum change for both the spring and summer 2020 semesters.
“Honestly, it’s been really hard especially since a lot of my courses are really applied,” Delgado-Saucedo said. “We had a final project where we were supposed to pour metal to create our final project for the class, but now that everything is canceled, we have to make everything out of theory and hope it would work, but we’re not actually doing hands-on work anymore.”
However, Delgado-Saucedo tries to focus on the positive. “There are some courses, honestly, now that I look at it, that are better online,” Delgado-Saucedo said. “I have a simulation course. It’s a program we use to simulate day-to-day work, and it’s so much easier to have a professor show you what they’re doing on their screen as opposed to in a classroom setting where you have to sit 20 feet away from the screen, and you’re not sure what’s going on. So, it has its benefits, but it also has its drawbacks with having these online classes.”
Like Delgado-Saucedo, second-year general biology student Alondra Carranza shares her struggles with the virtual switch.
“When I chose to transfer to Cal Poly, I did so for the personal feeling of classes being smaller in numbers, apart from the commute,” Carranza said. “I feel I learn better in a classroom setting as opposed to an online forum and I like being able to have my questions answered right there and then. Now with this online forum, things are not the same, especially when it comes to labs. There is a huge difference between being hands-on and being handed a video with slides to learn off of.”
Upset about the switch to online classes, Carranza has decided to opt out of the summer 2020 semester and hopes to continue her studies during fall 2020 instead, hopefully with face-to-face lectures.
Details on the CPP Student Success calendar state that the summer 2020 schedule is still under development and is subject to change up until the first day of classes.