Students and teachers fully returned to campus for the first time in 2022 on Jan. 31 — four weeks after Winter Quarter 2022 started. The university conducted remote instruction for a month due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. UCSB’s campus — which remained mostly empty during the beginning of this quarter with the exception of university housing, dining halls and a few other facilities — was bustling with activity as in-person classes resumed for Week 5. 

Full reopening of the campus was initially slated for Jan 18., but was delayed an additional two weeks until Jan. 31, with the decision to hold in-person classes left to instructors. While some protested the idea of anything other than in-person classes, many were apprehensive at the idea of returning to campus at all given surging cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant. 

Precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including the indoor mask mandate, remain in place, along with an additional requirement that all students eligible for a booster vaccination must receive one by the first day of in-person instruction.

The return to in-person instruction consisted of packed walkways and crowded bike lanes, as thousands of students breathed life into a campus that lay dormant for the better part of seven weeks.

(Mark Alfred / Daily Nexus)

A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Feb. 3, 2022, print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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