Colleges are struggling to salvage semester amid outbreaks

MADISON, Wis. — Colleges across the country are struggling to salvage the fall semester amid skyrocketing coronavirus cases, with entire dorm complexes and frat houses under quarantine, and flaring tensions with local community leaders over the spread of the disease.

Institutions across the nation saw spikes of thousands of cases days after opening their doors in the last month, driven by students socializing with little or no social distancing.

In Madison, government leaders want the University of Wisconsin to send its students home.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison had seen more than 2,800 confirmed cases in students as of Friday. The school shut down in-person instruction for two weeks, locked down two of its largest dorms, and imposed quarantines on more than a dozen sorority and fraternity houses. The school lifted the dorm lockdown just this week.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi has demanded the university send all its students home for the rest of the academic year.

“(The virus) was under control until the university came back,” Parisi said.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank has fired back, saying tens of thousands of students with off-campus housing would still come to the city. She accused Parisi of failing to enforce capacity restrictions in bars and off-campus parties.

“You can’t simply wish [students] away, nor should you,” Blank said in a statement directed at Parisi.

AP A student works last month while sitting inside a painted circle on a lawn at Ohio State University.