by: Nouran Salahieh, Lauren Lyster
Pepperdine University said Wednesday that it will move classes online for the remainder of the semester, becoming the latest Southern California college to make the move in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
UCLA on Tuesday joined several other Southern California universities to temporarily cancel in-person classes and move teaching online to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus across campuses.
UC Riverside and UCLA are immediately suspending in-person classes and UC Santa Barbara will be starting to transition online Wednesday. UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount University will move to remote teaching and testing next week.
USC announced Tuesday that it will be continuing online classes for a week after spring break.
All six universities emphasized that there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases on the campuses and that the move is to lower the risk of infection among the university communities after county officials announced the first suspected case of community spread.
UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego have all also previously announced they’re suspending in-person classes.