8/25/20
More than 500 cases at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Nearly 160 at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Dozens at the University of Southern California. Colleges and universities that brought students back to campus are expressing alarm about coronavirus infections emerging as classes have barely started, raising the possibility everyone could be sent home. “The rise we’ve seen in recent days is unacceptable, and if unchecked, threatens our ability to complete the rest of the semester on campus,” University of Alabama President Stuart Bell said at a news conference on Monday, as the mayor of Tuscaloosa temporarily closed bars and warned that the local health system could become overwhelmed. While a growing number of schools have backed off reopening, opting instead for online classes, others are hoping a host of new rules and adaptations can keep the coronavirus at bay. Ohio State University said this week that it had suspended 228 students for virus-related violations. Despite the precautions, schools are quickly discovering large outbreaks that have prompted new soul-searching about students’ commitment to social distancing and universities’ ability to deliver even a dramatically transformed on-campus experience.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, who joined Bell at the Monday news conference, said the university had requested his executive order closing bars for two weeks and eliminating bar service at restaurants. He said “the ever-increasing number of coronavirus cases on campus will create two major disruptions for Tuscaloosa if left unabated” — stretching the city’s health system and threatening its economy, which includes thousands of university jobs. Among students, faculty and staff tested across the University of Alabama System, 566 have had positive results for the virus since Aug. 19, according to a dashboard that is being updated. Those numbers do not include “entry testing” conducted to make sure students leave home coronavirus-free. The overwhelming majority of the new cases, 531, are at the flagship campus in Tuscaloosa. Syracuse University published a blistering letter Aug. 20 saying that a “large group of first-year students” would face discipline for an evening quad event that “selfishly jeopardized” the residential experience. The letter warned that they “may have done damage enough to shut down campus, including residence halls and in-person learning, before the academic semester even begins.”