UC Davis Offers Students Money NOT To Travel During Spring Break

With coronavirus concerns growing as spring break draws closer, one California university is offering students cash to stay put.

UC Davis Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life Sheri Atkinson joined CNN’s Brianna Keilar Wednesday to explain the program.

“The idea came because we are asking our students not to travel during spring break, to prevent the spread of Covid, and so we thought it would be important to provide them with an alternative of something to do during that time,” Atkinson said. “So through our initiative with Healthy Davis Together, we are offering them the $75 grant to do one of four activities they can apply for to get that grant.”

The activities would essentially require students to be on campus in order to get the money, but the university isn’t prohibiting all students from traveling.

“We’re not forbidding them to travel, we’re discouraging it,” Atkinson said. “If they do decide to travel, if they live on campus, we require them to test before they leave and then once they get back as well, if they live in our residence halls on campus. We’re not prohibiting students from traveling, but we’re strongly discouraging them and then also trying to use a positive incentive like these grants to encourage that.”

Despite the ongoing coronavirus vaccine rollout, health experts have expressed concern over the possibility that highly-contagious variants of the virus could be easily spread during spring break vacations.

In 2020, students partying in Florida and Texas over spring break was seen to have amplified the spread of the virus.