Colleges face new pressure as virus surges
The plan to welcome back students during a pandemic seemed on track for the fall, with class and dorm layouts altered for extra spacing, face masks mandated and campus protocols in place to test and isolate the sick.
But privately, even as Edinboro University was sending out notices about campus move-in being just three weeks away, its president, Guiyou Huang, and aides had grown increasingly worried — about the summer surge of COVID-19 and about Edinboro’s ability to contain it. Ultimately, the state-owned school with about 4,600 students hit the brakes last week — hard.
The dilemma reflects what public and private college leaders now face nationally, having scrambled to meet student demand for a residential experience despite COVID-19, only to confront what that might look like as classes near.
It’s been frustrating both for them and for those seeking degrees. When word arrived in Edinboro student inboxes Wednesday that move-in for most had been canceled and instruction shifted almost exclusively online, it was infuriating to some families, a relief to others.
“We are here to make people more successful, but people need to be protected to have a future,” Mr. Huang said Monday, explaining his decision. “I’d rather err on the side of safety and health than anything else.”
The same day Edinboro announced its charges, Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., broke the news to its students that oncampus classes had been shelved. Another private campus, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., made its announcement several days earlier. West Chester and East Stroudsburg universities, both state-owned schools in Pennsylvania, made similar moves this month, as did campuses elsewhere, among them the University of California at Berkeley, Washington State University and George Washington University.
Late Monday, West Virginia University joined the list. WVU officials said fall move-in will be delayed a week and most upperclass members will shift to online instruction given concern over rising infections in that state.
Millersville and Lock Haven universities switched to mostly remote instruction, and Duke University is saying its move-in will be limited largely to freshmen and sophomores.
In Decatur, Ga., Agnes Scott College leaders had worries beyond Monday’s decision to take fall semester online. The school’s president, Lee Zak, is hospitalized with COVID-19 in Atlanta’s Emery University Medical Center.
“She is receiving exceptional care and at this point resting comfortably,” board chair Beth Holder told the campus Friday. “This came as a surprise in that Lee has been extremely cautious and careful regarding health protocols to avoid exposure.”
The swings and shifts in campus plans this summer are owed largely to rapidly changing conditions in individual counties and states. The virus death toll in the U.S. now tops 148,000, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
At Edinboro, officials had met a July 15 State System of Higher Education deadline to submit final fall plans, which included in-person and remote classes and largely occupied dorms.
But two days later, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a record 74,710 new COVID-19 cases nationally, with hot spots in 40 states — some that Edinboro students would arrive from or had visited over the summer.
“The most important factor to me was the number of cases throughout the state and throughout the country,” Mr. Huang said.
Young people were becoming infected in larger numbers, including college athletes on various campuses this summer, and there was a testing shortage, his administration said. Adding to fears was the June 30 death of Juan Garcia, 21, a Penn State senior from Allentown, who had fallen ill with the virus living off campus in State College.
Edinboro’s emergency response team already was monitoring a worsening picture when Mr. Huang called a meeting of his cabinet on July 20. After weighing pros and cons for an hour, he said, consensus emerged that the risk had become unacceptable for students and for faculty with health issues.
Angela Burrows, an Edinboro spokeswoman, said leaders concluded cases of COVID-19 were inevitable on college campuses.
“While we can require social distancing in classrooms, the dining hall, the library, computer labs, etc., we cannot ensure precautions will be taken off campus or even in residence halls, with large numbers of students living together,” she said. “We did not want to bring students back knowing we may have to move fully to remote instruction at some point during the semester after a number of students have tested positive.”
Mr. Huang, who grew up in China, said he watched as university students there returned to campuses after the virus’ initial onset, only to be sent home again.
Edinboro’s latest announcement triggered an immediate response on social media, including frustration and questions, but also support.
“Since we enrolled with the expectation of in-person classes, will there be an option for students to take a gap year and be guaranteed admission the following year?” asked one student on Instagram.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t trust adults to be responsible to help put an end to this. Now we young adults must bear the burden for ignorant people,” read another post, referring to the spike in cases nationally. “But glad we prioritized staff and student safety.”
Edinboro’s chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties supported the decision, its president Marc Sylvester said. Ten prospective students canceled after Wednesday’s announcement, but the losses were partially offset by six student deposits placed over the weekend, Ms. Burrows said. There were no cancellations Monday.
Nationally, the share of schools that expect full, inperson learning this fall has slipped below 50%, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 1,275 schools focused on undergraduates. Forty-eight percent plan in-person classes, another 35% aim for a mix of in-person and remote, while 14% are moving online and the rest are undecided.
Campuses yet to fully announce testing plans are under pressure to do so — among them Penn State University, from its hometown newspaper. A headline atop a Centre Daily Times story published Thursday read, “Where is Penn State’s COVID-19 testing plan? Silence, lack of answers irk community.”
The story pointed to unanswered questions, including how testing will work, whether there will be a charge, testing capacity and turnaround time for results, plus how Penn State will fulfill its pledge to be transparent about positive test numbers. The paper said last week it could not get answers from the university.
On Monday, Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the university will host a virtual town hall meeting to address such issues Thursday at 3 p.m.
Colleges entered the summer weighing the educational and financial benefits of bringing students back to campus against the potential for cases to explode.
Western Pennsylvania’s largest school, the University of Pittsburgh, has invested $22 million in hotel rooms near campus to cut residence hall occupancy and has elaborate plans for contact tracing and social distancing, even holding some classes in a tent. Officials there say their flex@pitt plan will enable them to keep students on campus, even if nearly all classes go online.
Other education officials, like WVU president E. Gordon Gee, said his school had no choice but to reconsider its initial plans.
“As much as I want everyone back on campus, I know this is the right decision,” he said Monday. “And it was made based on what is needed for our campus at this moment in time. Other universities are facing similar decisions and will do what is right for them.”