Reopening Colleges Face Biggest Coronavirus Threat: Students – By Lauren Camera (US News) / Aug 28 2020
Colleges and universities are attempting to reopen campuses despite high-profile failures and despite the most obvious obstacle of all: counting on students to change their behavior.
THE EPICENTER OF THE coronavirus pandemic shifted precipitously this week, scattering to hundreds of college and university campuses across the U.S. as the World Health Organization warned that young people are now the primary drivers of COVID-19.
“The epidemic is changing,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, said Tuesday at a news briefing. “People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread.”
The announcement came as thousands of students descended upon college towns for the start of the academic year, many attempting to move into residence halls. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, more than a third of the country’s 5,000 campuses are giving it a go despite a series of high-profile failures and despite the most obvious obstacle of all: counting on students to change their behavior.
“We have one shot to make this happen,” J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation at Syracuse University, wrote in an open letter to the campus community after a large group of first-year students gathered in the quad, which is prohibited by New York state public health law and by a pledge students signed in order to live on campus.
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