Students to pay as much for less

California State University announced this week that its courses will remain largely online through the next semester, a potentially influential decision by the nation’s largest such system, which became the first public fouryear institutions to cancel inperson instruction in the fall. The likelihood of “a very significant wave” of coronavirus infections in the fall, Chancellor Timothy White told trustees Tuesday, “will result in CSU courses primarily being delivered virtually.”

The system is still asking that full tuition be delivered in all actuality, however. Despite their readiness to radically change the scope of services provided, San Francisco State, Cal State East Bay and 21 other campuses serving about half a million students have been all too reluctant to broach the possibility of changing the going price, which ranges from about $6,500 to $10,000 a year in tuition and fees. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, an ex officio CSU trustee, did acknowledge that students forced to learn remotely might be “questioning the value” of their education, but that was in the course of arguing against a tuition increase.

Apart from the glaring failure to discuss the prospect of a break for struggling students and their families, system officials deserve credit for leading the way toward a cautious and cleareyed response to the pandemic. A vaccine is unlikely to be available this year, effective treatments remain elusive, and the virus is likely to spread among and sometimes cause significant illness in young people.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sounded a note of caution on reopening schools in the fall during testimony in a Senate committee hearing held on the same day as the CSU announcement. Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of a Health and Human Services Department agency charged with preparing for pandemics, is expected to warn a House committee Thursday that without “a national coordinated response based in science,” a resurgence of the virus in the fall could lead to the “darkest winter in modern history.”

Besides recognizing such risks, CSU’s decision gives students and faculty more notice to prepare for another term of chiefly online learning, with some exceptions. A Chronicle of Higher Education survey found only 8% of colleges and universities planning for online instruction in the fall, with 69% still preparing for traditional classes.

California’s other two public higher education institutions, the University of California and community college systems, which like CSU have been providing largely online education this spring, have been more circumspect about the fall semester while suggesting virtual instruction could well continue. A UC spokesman acknowledged Wednesday that “it’s likely none of our campuses will fully reopen in fall.”

Universities across the spectrum have also been loath to discuss the possibility of tuition breaks, the subject of countless student petitions and, in the case of CSU and UC, class action lawsuits. A CSU representative at one point declared that the issue wasn’t even “appropriate to discuss.”

Granted, the universities are under significant financial pressure themselves — the CSU system is expecting to lose more than $300 million this semester — and will need unprecedented state and federal assistance to weather this crisis. They should acknowledge that students and their families are facing similarly extraordinary hardships.