Bringing Students, Faculty and Staff Back to Campus Safely

Successfully opening our campus to new and returning Niners in the middle of a pandemic could not have happened without the innovation, talent and hard work of our faculty, staff and students and our collaboration with local and state health officials.

Together, we launched a comprehensive health, safety and sanitation plan on campus that included daily health screenings, dedicated on-site testing and contact tracing — giving our students hands-on learning experiences in public health. And an interdisciplinary team of researchers designed a predictive wastewater-testing program as an early-warning system for identifying potential COVID-19 outbreaks. Their work received national recognition, including the front page of the New York Times. The project is funded through the support of a nine-million-dollar state appropriation, the largest in the University’s history.

Our collective efforts kept our infection rate below the county average and allowed us to have a successful academic year.