I teach at a public university (albeit not in California). Switching to online-only might be fatal to many such institutions, especially those (including mine) that rely on revenue from out-of-state students who pay higher tuition. Why would a parent pay out-of-state tuition if their kid is at home? A lot of public institutions are going to close because of this.
(I suppose the appropriate answer is "so why should universities avoid what's hitting the rest of the economy?" I have no real answer to that, except that public universities can't rely on endowments to the same degree as most private institutions, and it's the public universities that serve the majority of students who can't afford private colleges or universities. This includes community colleges - a real gift America gave to the concept of higher education. So if we go, the disparity between who can afford higher education and who can't will get a lot worse than it already is. The notion that this will save students money is only true in the very shortest of terms.)
This really is going to be a rough thing to work through. A complete return to in-person instruction across the board is obviously not an option; this pandemic isn't over. But I can say now with direct personal experience that the online experience is not always equivalent to being in a classroom. Some programs require field courses, internships, or other experiences that can't adequately be replicated in a virtual environment. (Mine is one such program.). Anyone who claims anything can be taught online is either misinformed or thinking unrealistically.
I'm on my college's executive committee. We discussed budget models this morning. I would actually contract COVID than announce the kind of cuts we're facing, depending on how much state appropriations drop. And they'll drop.
For this reason, some programs are going to have to include some level of in-person instruction this fall. My own institution is looking at hybrid arrangements that would include a mix of in-person and virtual instruction. We're also looking at modifying the physical infrastructure to minimize reliance on central air systems (e.g. allowing us to open windows again, after a long streak of renovating buildings with fixed-in-place windows), limiting class size, limiting the dorm population, and requiring other actions to help keep this thing from spreading.
I don't know what the future holds. I almost don't want to know.
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