Some colleges plan to bring back more students

It was a tough fall semester for many American colleges and universities, with declining enrolment, cancelled classes and sporting events, Zoom fatigue and enough coronavirus-infected students nationwide to fill three and a half Rose Bowls. But many university officials say lessons from the fall will allow them to do something many experts considered unthinkable a few months ago: bring even more students back onto campus in January and February, write Anemona Hartocollis and Shawn Hubler for The New York Times.

The University of California, San Diego, for instance, is making room for more than 11,000 students in campus housing – about 1,000 more than it housed in the fall. The University of Florida is planning to offer more face-to-face classes than it did before the pandemic. And Princeton University, which let only a few hundred students live on campus last semester, has offered space to thousands of undergraduates.

The determination to bring back more students, even as the pandemic is surging in many states, partly reflects the financial imperative to have more students paying room and board, as well as the desire to provide something resembling a college experience. But there is also an emerging confidence among at least some college administrators that they have learned much about managing the pandemic on their campuses. Test aggressively. Contact trace assiduously. Maintain mask rules and social distancing. And don’t underestimate students’ willingness to obey restrictions.
Full report on The New York Times site