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Colleges Closing Quickly as COVID-19 Cases Rise

VOA News

   As the Thanksgiving holiday looms, more colleges and universities in
   the United States continue to abruptly shut down their campuses for the
   remainder of the fall semester because of increased COVID-19 cases
   across the country.

   At the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown last spring, colleges and
   universities scrambled to respond to the pandemic and keep students
   safe. A George Mason University (GMU) study found that three-quarters
   of 575 colleges with more than 5,000 students had moved courses online,
   discouraged campus housing, canceled travel, closed campuses, and
   worked remotely.

   That study, published October 16, analyzed actions colleges had made
   between February 25 and March 31.

   "Spring break was this wonderful opportunity that just happened to be
   occurring at the right time that gave universities the bandwidth to be
   able to transition relatively smoothly for the spring," said Michael
   von Fricken, an assistant professor at GMU who worked on the study
   [1]published in Plos One.

   "We've reached this point where universities are only able to be shut
   down for so long," said Fricken. "It's becoming more and more about
   balancing finances and student safety."

References

   1. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240786

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