Back to College in the Fall? - The New York Times

To the Editor:

“Colleges Must Reopen in the Fall,” by Christina Paxson, the president of Brown University (Op-Ed, April 27), is profoundly irresponsible. Despite her confident assertions, it is impossible to have students together in dormitories, lecture halls and dining rooms, not to mention for weekend parties, without generating a huge burst of new cases of the coronavirus.

What defense would she offer to the lawsuit that would no doubt be brought against Brown if a student, faculty member or staff member she urged back to campus died or suffered enduring harm to her or his health?

Parents are not going to play games with the lives of their children. Staff and faculty members like me should not be asked to put our lives and those of our students at risk.

Until a vaccine is found, this catastrophe, and the abysmal absence of competent leadership from the White House, mean that residential college and university life will have to be postponed until it is safe to return to campus. In the interim, funds should be found so that all students have the internet connections and other equipment they may need to continue their studies. To suggest otherwise is the kind of irresponsibility we have come to expect from the anti-scientific right, not from the president of a university.

Jeffrey Herf
College Park, Md.
The writer is a history professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

To the Editor:

I do not disagree with Christina Paxson’s economic assessment, especially given that my son attends a small school in a rural community. What I do take issue with is her assessment of the ability of college students to adequately monitor their behavior and health.

College students (particularly the males) often do not have sufficiently developed executive brain function. Many think they are invincible and “it will not happen to me.” Look at the example of the spring break partying on the Florida beaches. You cannot expect college students to remember to wear masks when at a party, drinking, dancing and enjoying their friends.

College students also do not necessarily go to the health center when ill. What is a school going to do when a student is diagnosed with the virus — quarantine the entire floor the student lives on?

I would love to see my son continue his college education, but as a parent I am not willing to put him at risk and trust that his school will keep him safe.

Marsha Lipets-Maser
Portland, Ore.

To the Editor:

Thank you, Ms. Paxson. I, too, am biased on this topic, as my 18-year-old daughter finishes her first year on our living room couch. A great mentor once told me the best way to lead: Get ahead of the parade. I applaud Ms. Paxson’s statements and urge her to share detailed plans for making her university safe. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Start testing new methods now. Immediately hire contact tracers. Understand your data now. Bring students back in small numbers midsummer — believe me, they will come. And, yes, be ready to retreat. Let’s move beyond the rhetoric and get our next generation engaged in solving our greatest challenges — this virus being only one of them.

Eric Berridge
Scarsdale, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Christina Paxson starts with the presumption that colleges must reopen in the fall or will crumble. Her argument ignores the most important variable to consider — the uncertain effectiveness of her proposed solutions (testing, tracing, screening and isolating Covid-19 cases). The danger is that self-interested university administrations may risk lives in order to maintain their colleges’ incomes.

Among the alternative solutions, colleges could continue online education (yes, some students will opt out) while temporarily reducing or delaying administrators’ and tenured faculty members’ salaries. By belt tightening, most colleges could weather a big hit for at least one more semester, knowing that student enrollments will more than bounce back in 2021 because of pent-up demand.

Saving the lives of students, faculty members and their families will continue to require big sacrifices. If colleges believe otherwise, smart students will vote with their feet and transfer elsewhere for online education until it is safer to return. At the very least, students should be given an option to continue attending their college’s classes online rather than in person this fall.

R.J. Green
San Francisco
The writer is professor emeritus of the California School of Professional Psychology.

To the Editor:

Like most college-bound high school seniors, I hope that colleges will be able to resume classes in person this fall, but I’m not convinced that it’s worth the public health risk. As Christina Paxson acknowledges in her article, there’s a real chance that an outbreak will occur if students return to campus. And unless a vaccine is miraculously developed before classes resume, any chance of an outbreak is too high. It’s just not worth the risk.

Personally, I would be more than happy to have my first semester of college online, if that reduces or eliminates the chance of an outbreak. Yes, I would prefer in-person classes, but my preference should not come before the public’s health and safety.

Matthew Tikhonovsky
Marietta, Ga.
The writer is a rising freshman at Harvard.

To the Editor:

Can we stop talking about reopening colleges and universities as if higher education were one undifferentiated blob? Some colleges have dorms but many do not. A few have deep endowments, but most do not. Some rely on tuition-paying international students for revenue. Some colleges already offered a lot of online classes and remote learning. Some cost a ton of money, some less so.

When and how colleges open may well depend on many of these variables.

Jeremy Pressman
West Hartford, Conn.
The writer is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut.

To the Editor:

Christina Paxson raises many important points. As the father of two college-age children, I desperately want them to be on campus in the fall. While in theory everything she says sounds great, the devil is most definitely in the details.

As she notes, it all begins with testing. Testing with rapid results must be widely available throughout the nation. We are nowhere near that point, and I wonder how we will get there by August. As an example, Rhode Island (the home of Brown) has done more testing per capita than any other state. Yet it is testing only about 5 percent of its residents.

And will campuses have an adequate supply of masks, gloves and cleaning supplies for their staff and students? As Dr. Paxson knows, there isn’t an adequate supply now.

I also have many questions about her isolation and quarantine strategy. In theory, using hotels sounds wonderful. However, I wonder how many hotels and motels in Providence or anywhere else will readily set aside the entire building or even a wing as a rehab unit. And who takes care of these students while they are isolated for two-plus weeks?

I hope that Dr. Paxson is right that we can open up campuses in the fall. I really do (as do my children). I just don’t know if her plan is realistic given where we are today.

Scott Willis
Montclair, N.J.

To the Editor:

I am puzzled by the lack of acknowledgment of local communities that coexist with colleges. Many colleges exist not in cities like Providence but in rural communities with vulnerable populations and fragile health care systems, as in Waterville, Me., where I graduated from Colby College last May.

I fear for the community’s economy, for the family-owned local coffee shop in which I wrote my papers. I am heartbroken that students may have to spend more time away. But I am terrified of what an outbreak would mean for those in central Maine who rely on Waterville’s hospitals. The safety of community members who sustain the institution must come first.

Noa Gutow-Ellis
Brooklyn

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