Why reopen colleges?
Schools are already reporting outbreaks
In many cases, the answer is money. And these universities are almost certain to see virus outbreaks.
Colleges that are reopening campuses know they’re bringing a higher risk of the coronavirus to their community.
The questions aren’t really about if or when, but about how bad outbreaks could be – and whether having an inperson experience for students is worth the cost. With so much at stake, some students, parents and faculty are asking: Why take the risk at all?
In many cases, it comes down to money.
For months, colleges and experts have warned another semester of remote courses could have disastrous effects on student enrollment and college budgets. Colleges already lost billions of dollars when they pivoted to digital instruction in the spring, in the form of refunded room-and-board payments and technology for online courses. Another semester – or year – of online courses could be even worse, especially for universities without large endowments.
For any institution, online instruction also means no money from dorm rooms, dining halls or campus bookstores. Athletics proceeds have also dried up as the NCAA has canceled championship competitions for the fall and conferences have canceled fall seasons. And that doesn’t even account for students ditching class altogether.
A survey by Simpson-Scarborough, a higher education research firm, in July found roughly 40% of incoming firstyear students said they were likely or highly likely to change where they went to school because of COVID-19. And returning college students, who complained
“... We cannot pay scholarships, salaries, resources and building maintenance without money.” Barbara Rimer Dean of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health
of paying full tuition for lackluster classes in the spring, have weighed deferring future enrollment until campuses reopen. In response, some colleges have offered discounts on tuition or waived students’ fees tied to in-person activities. Others have faced students’ ire for declining to do so.
Already, colleges have reported cases of COVID-19, putting pressure on their reopening plans – and additional pressure on their finances. And after several outbreaks in student living spaces, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday said it would pivot to online instruction for undergraduates. After reporting nearly 90 new cases on Monday, the University of Notre Dame on Tuesday said it would put undergraduate courses online for two weeks.
“The number of clusters is growing and soon could become out of control,” Dean Barbara Rimer wrote on the website of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. “It is time for an offramp. We have tried to make this work, but it is not working.”
Money, Rimer wrote, had factored into the university’s reopening plans, but finances will take a hit no matter what decision college leaders make.
“People do not like to talk about money in higher ed, as though we should be above money, but we cannot pay scholarships, salaries, resources and building maintenance without money,” she wrote.
The American Council on Education, a higher education trade group, put colleges’ losses in the spring at $46.6 billion in increased student financial aid and lost revenue. The same group, joined by other college associations, told Congress it would cost at least $73.8 billion in new costs to reopen campuses.
“The sad fact is that many colleges are racing toward a financial cliff,” said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president with ACE.
Finances are likely playing some role in a university’s decision to reopen, said Kevin McClure, a professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Even a dorm that is half-full might be better for a college’s bottom line than one that is empty. In some cases, he said, a college may be influenced to reopen by its board – members of which are often political appointees.
No matter what approach a college takes, the semester’s financial picture is unlikely to leave them “significantly richer,” McClure said. Colleges bringing students back to campus are doing so in a limited capacity, with fewer students and with some classes held remotely.
Small public regional colleges and less selective private universities may be facing mergers or closures. Even larger universities may have to contend with furloughs, layoffs or budget cuts.
“Even as a scholar and someone who believes that going online is the right decision,” McClure said, “I know that in many cases, shifting to online means that institutions are going to be in a very tough spot financially. And that will mean jobs are on the line.”
Prepare for plans to change
Hundreds of colleges are pushing ahead with in-person classes, banking on tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests, plexiglass in classrooms, university-branded face masks, and the collective goodwill of students to comply with party bans. Administrators at these institutions say their students are hungry for in-person instruction.
Whatever plan a college chooses, it may not last, said Chris Marsicano, a professor at Davidson College who leads
The College Crisis Initiative, a project tracking college responses to coronavirus. Many schools had planned to reopen in the fall but have since walked back those plans.
Students should get used to the uncertainty, he said.
Colleges likely will have to change their plans again during the middle of the semester. That may mean the easing of some restrictions, such as limits on social gatherings, but it could mean more digital instruction. He said colleges will try to avoid reconvening all their students to mix whatever they may be carrying only to send them back out across the country.
“They need to be ready to have online classes from their dorm room and all their meals delivered in boxes,” he said. “That’s sort of the worst-case scenario, but once you get on campus, most schools are not going to shut it all down.”
Fearing the worst
Another cost has pushed some universities to make the opposite decision: the fear that reopening will cost a faculty member, staffer or student their life.
For Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, a historically Black university in Texas, the decision to skip inperson classes in favor of an online one “wasn’t that hard of a decision.” Paul Quinn made the call back in July.
“I don’t know how your students and staff look at you the same once they figured out that you didn’t put their safety at the top of your decision making,” he said.
The calculus was similar for Suzanne
Elise Walsh, the president of Bennett College, an all-women historically Black college. The college, like most small, private institutions, relies heavily on tuition money to function.
But Walsh said she also had to consider how the virus is disproportionately affecting people of color. The decision was primarily focused on the health of the community, she said.
“That doesn’t mean finances aren’t an issue,” Walsh said.
Elsewhere in the country, some student groups have led protests and petitions imploring their universities to adopt more online options.
“The primary motivator for insisting that classes take place in person is financial,” said Desirae Embree, a graduate student at Texas A&M University.
“Would a long-term budget crunch hurt a lot of us? Yes,” she said. “But also the more immediate danger is our shortterm and long-term health.”
10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer
Even before students arrived on campus, Notre Dame had mailed thousands of them coronavirus tests to take at home. Of the nearly 12,000 who took tests, less than 1%, or about 33 students, tested positive for the virus.
The university also installed new video technology in classrooms, replaced dozens of electric hand dryers with traditional paper towel dispensers to keep the coronavirus out of the air, and stocked roughly 10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer.
Classes began last Monday at the Indiana campus. Despite all the precautions, as of Monday, there had been 147 confirmed cases since move-in started Aug. 3. University protocol calls for people infected with coronavirus to isolate. While courses are online, Notre Dame has asked off-campus students not to come to school and those living in university housing not to leave campus. Gatherings are restricted to 10 people.
The university reopened because it believes an in-person experience is necessary for its students’ education, Provost Marie Lynn Miranda told USA TODAY last week. Switching to digital instruction in the spring, she said, “was not a particularly good experience for our low-income and low-resource students.” They may lack internet access and a safe home environment.
Miranda said she is aware of the criticism that financial concerns may be driving the university’s actions.
That desire to continue Notre Dame’s educational mission fueled its reopening decision, Miranda said, though it did have financial implications.
“Education is critical to our democracy,” she said. “When we can make it happen, we should make it happen.”
Other universities have taken a similar stance.
Boston University is pushing ahead with its plans to reopen in the fall while facing demonstrations from its community to move all classes online. In a statement, university leaders said a residential education was key to the university’s mission. It also said students were eager to return to campus and that the college already had suffered a “significant financial impact.”
“We must minimize additional negative impacts on the University’s overall operational and financial viability so that we may emerge from this period financially sound,” the university said.
Texas A&M University also is planning in-person instruction, along with some online courses. The university has taken some safety measures like increased cleaning or pushing for everyone to wear a mask, said Embree, the graduate student in Texas, but it feels like putting a “Band-Aid on a geyser.”
Embree worries cases will shoot up when students return, and local hospitals won’t be able to handle the surge.
And she fears students who do come to A&M may later return to their hometowns and spread the virus there.
“People will die,” she said. “And then the university will shut down and go completely online.”
Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.