Johnson & Wales North Miami Campus Will Close in 2021

June 25, 2020

Students at Johnson & Wales' edible garden

The culinary school that trained South Florida chefs and restaurateurs like Adrianne Calvo and Timon Balloo announced today they’ll end operations in summer 2021. Johnson & Wales says returning students will be able to continue their education through the 2020-2021 academic year, but they will not enroll a new incoming class for this fall.

“As we position the university for the future, JWU’s unique status as one university, with four geographically diverse on-the-ground campuses must now become part of our past,” says JWU board of trustees chair Jim Hance. The university will keep its Providence and Charlotte campuses open.

In announcing the closing of the North Miami and Denver campuses, Johnson & Wales cited a decline in high school graduates, technology that allows colleges and universities to offer remote education, and the effects of the pandemic.

“JWU, like many schools in the country, has been planning for the fall and evaluating the multiple impacts the disruption caused by the coronavirus has had on campus operations and enrollment,” says Hance.

“This decision was not made lightly, and we understand that it will impact members of our community,” says Chancellor Mim L. Runey.

Bruce Ozga, dean of culinary education at the North Miami campus, offers words of encouragement. “My bit of advice to everyone is through these challenging times, it will be an opportunity to reinvent, create new opportunities and meet the market demands,” he says. “The great thing about our industry is that everyone needs to eat and in a few hours customers are hungry again.”