Southwestern College’s campuses will remain closed for the rest of the spring semester. President Dr. Kindred Murillo announced the closure through an email to college employees. All classes will be held online until June. The college previously planned to close from March 16-30, moving on-campus classes to an online platform.
Murillo said the decision was based on guidance and orders from the federal government, state government, Chancellor’s office and San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.
The County of San Diego released a set of regulations on March 16 stating “All public or private schools, colleges, and universities shall not hold classes or other school activities where students gather on the school campus,” until March 31. Governor Gavin Newsom said he did not foresee classes to resume before summer break, in a press conference on March 17.
“Let me be candid, this is a very sober thing to say and I can’t say this with certainty, but I can say this quite learnedly,” he said. “Don’t anticipate schools are going to open up in a week. Please don’t anticipate in a few weeks.”
In the email, Murrillo said students will still be able to enroll in summer classes.
“Summer session will continue and we will begin moving courses to online,” said Murillo in the email.
She said the college will transition resources like EOPS, DSS, veterans to online. She also said they would look for “creative/safe” alternatives for labs, art studio and performance-based classes.
