As of Oct. 3, vaccine and testing requirements at Fresno City College, and all State Center Community College District campuses have been suspended by SCCCD Chancellor Carole Goldsmith.

On Oct. 10, vending machines for COVID-19 test kits were made available for free for use at all campuses, in place of other testing centers that closed on Oct. 7. At FCC, it is located in the Cafeteria and Student Activities entrance.

According to the California Department of Public Health, nearly half of Californians aged 12+ are fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, not including the bivalent boosters that have begun rolling out in recent months.

That was one of many indicators Goldsmith paid attention to as the decision was being made, along with new cases and hospitalizations on the local and state levels, and reporting of cases from SCCCD staff, faculty, and students.

One more indicator is the discovery of new variants of COVID-19, like the omicron variant that caused last winter’s surge. 

“Right now, I’m talking to both state and local public health officials… by looking at the global data, they’re not seeing any new variants on the horizon,” Goldsmith said.

However, recent reporting has shown that a few new subvariants may cause another surge, which is why SCCCD’s mandates are suspended, rather than lifted entirely.

“That’s one of the reasons we chose suspension, to keep this policy available if we should need it, in the unfortunate event we would need it,” she said. “My hope is that it truly is suspended for quite some time, that’s everyone’s hope.”

As far as specific numbers are concerned, Goldsmith said she’d be relying on researchers and public health professionals to keep her updated, as well as guidance from CDPH and Cal/OSHA, the latter of which sets and enforces standards for worker safety and moving machinery in California.

While the mandates may be suspended, Goldsmith still encourages people to wear a mask and get tested whenever necessary, and said “That should be an accepted practice by everyone, it’s certainly an accepted practice by me.”

She also talked about her experience seeing masks widely used in China years before the pandemic.

“I was struck by how many people wore masks, and part of it was because they didn’t want to spread the flu… they had elder people at home and they wanted to take care of them, they didn’t want to bring anything home,” Goldsmith said. “I thought that was very admirable, quite a noble concept about thinking about someone other than yourself, and thinking about maybe your loved ones at home.” 

Goldsmith also reflected on how the campus community came together during the early days of the pandemic to help one another out.

“If I remember – at Fresno City College specifically, but this was copied throughout the district – students came together to hand out food in the very early days, taking care of one another,” she said. “We had food being given by these long poles, but we made sure that that food service continued.” 

She continued on that topic, saying that “Many of our health students, and just students in general, volunteered at various vaccination centers when the vaccination became available and we opened up our campuses across the district to make that available, not only for our students and staff, but for the community.”