With great resistance towards yet another semester of fully virtual learning, Sonoma State has opened its doors to students for in-person learning in the 2021-2022 school year. However, now that the new, more contagious Delta variant is the predominant strain of the Coronavirus, the reality is starting to set in that returning to this “new normal” might not be as safe as the university had originally projected.

Now that students have finished moving on campus and classes have started meeting in person, our sonoma.edu emails have been flooded with notifications of a new positive COVID-19 case almost daily. With the rise of cases on campus, many of the faculty and students that have had to return to hybrid and in-person classes are starting to doubt that this is something that can quickly be patched up with masks and hand sanitizer. With the safety of students at risk, the ball is now in the university’s court to decide on how we can move forward with the least risk of exposure to the virus.

Coronavirus cases in Sonoma County are once again starting to see a spike, as there have been over 220 new cases in the last few days. In just the past week, there have been 8 reported positive cases of COVID-19 on campus, ranging from the recreation center to the student center, as well as in Darwin and International Halls. This is only an estimate of cases on campus, as this is only data collected from students who have filled out their daily health screenings, meaning there could potentially be more positive cases than reported each day. It’s a bold assumption that all students are being diligent with their health screenings, let alone that they are being completely honest with the information that they’re filling out.

Immunocompromised students and staff that have no choice but to continue their required classes are putting themselves at risk by continuing to attend hybrid and face-to-face classes. With an obvious disconnect between students studying from home and students studying on campus, this coming school year will be nothing short of a challenge for everyone involved.

In a recent “Noma News” email from Sonoma State, Judy Sakaki addresses the campus community by stating that “it is wonderful to see our beautiful campus come to life again and to get back into the familiar rhythms of campus life,” followed by pictures of students and staff socially distanced, and all wearing masks. However, one might wonder just how realistic this depiction of “safety” truly is. Even with vaccination numbers rising, cases in Sonoma County continue to climb.

This notion of returning to “normalcy” seems too good to be true, but with the university starting to fear debt from the refunds of the previous school year, students and staff are quickly forced out of their comfort zone and ushered into a fully reopened campus. The real question is: Is it still too soon to make this call? Sonoma State has decided that it isn’t, and even amidst safety concerns, there is still money to be made.

With each “positive case on campus” email, the school includes a lengthy reminder for safety precautions, but there is no guarantee that each student is going to follow these guidelines. The school also states that, “the areas where the COVID-19 positive person was present have been cleaned, however no areas or facilities will be closed to the campus,” which could become an even bigger concern to students and staff. While cases continue to spike, it will become increasingly difficult for the school to keep up with the spread, and even harder to trace each student or faculty member that a COVID-positive person comes into contact with.