San Diego State University and UC San Diego administrators have told their faculty to be prepared to move classes online, if necessary, due to the coronavirus, which is continuing to spread throughout California.

SDSU “has been preparing since January for the possibility that some members of our community may become ill or quarantined,” Provost Salvador Hector Ochoa said in a campus email.

“In that case, we will likely need to offer alternatives to in-person meetings and classes. In the continued interest of health and safety, this is an appropriate time for all instructors to be prepared, or if the campus needs to temporarily suspend in-person instruction ...

“Faculty should start to make preliminary plans to teach online or remotely for a single session or even for an extended period of time.”


The message comes as SDSU, which has nearly 35,000 students, is preparing for mid-term exams. Spring breaks begins on March 30.

UCSD, which has nearly 39,000 students, is “operating normally,” said Laura Margoni, a campus spokesperson. “However, knowing the situation remains fluid, we are preparing to move classes online should the need arise and have been working with faculty and our technical support team to ensure we can continue instruction.”

SDSU and UCSD aren’t the first to make such a move.

On Friday, Stanford University announced that it is moving classes online, effective Monday. And the University of Washington, which has about 50,000 students spread over three campuses, said that it has canceled in-person classes and that students will take exams online.


On a smaller scale, Brandman University said Friday that it has temporarily stopped offering in-person classes at its branch in San Diego’s Mission Valley. All instruction has been moved online.

