SANTA BARBARA — Santa Barbara City College has announced that all fall classes will officially start fully online.
The announcement was made Tuesday by Superintendent and President Dr. Utpal K. Goswami. Initial plans for the fall semester considered offering the majority of courses online, with a small percentage of classes being conducted in person. The college reassessed its plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the county has been on the state’s monitoring list since June, said Luz Reyes-Martin, executive director of public affairs and communications for SBCC.
“We have been in ongoing, regular communication with our Santa Barbara County Public Health department and have determined that it is highly unlikely that our County will be able to make the needed progress in order to allow for face-to-face instruction to resume on August 24th (the first day of Fall semester),” Dr. Goswami wrote in an email to faculty and staff.
The college will pursue a “very limited exemption” to hold some in-person classes that support “essential and critical infrastructure,” Ms. Reyes-Martin said.
The state, with approval from the county Public Health Department, allows certain programs that support this infrastructure to meet in person to fulfill specific requirements. SBCC has nine Career Technology Education programs that meet the exemption, and officials are expected to announce details on the possible exemption in the coming weeks.
For more information, visit www.sbcc.edu.
— Mitchell White
