Tents and Immunity Testing: US Colleges Weigh Return to Campus Life

Classes in tents. Roommates assigned based on coronavirus antibody tests. Residences set aside for quarantined students. U.S. college life could look dramatically different when classes resume in the fall.

Colleges emptied dormitories and moved classes online in March as the pandemic worsened — a decision that left many students clamoring for partial refunds.

Facing budget shortfalls, several colleges have said they are putting infrastructure investments on hold, freezing hiring, and furloughing employees.

Now, universities are exploring creative, once-implausible approaches to make sure students can return to campus in the 2020-2021 academic year.

“There will be changes for sure, but one way or another we are going to be open,” said James Herbert, president of the University of New England (UNE), a private college in Maine.

The selling point of residential colleges is campus life and the sense of community it fosters, said Brian Rosenberg, president of Macalester College in Minnesota.

When classes are online, private schools cannot make money from housing and dining services, and they struggle to justify tuition costs, Rosenberg said.

The average tuition and fees at an in-state public college was $10,116 for the 2019-2020 year and $36,801 at private schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.

“The best scenario from a financial perspective for any residential college is to try get in as much of a full year open on campus as possible,” Rosenberg said.

School administrators are eyeing changes to dormitory life.

Herbert of UNE said the university is looking into assigning roommates based on the results of tests that can detect if someone has antibodies to the coronavirus.

Ideally, a student without antibodies would be paired with one who has them to prevent roommates from infecting each other, Herbert said.