The fall semester has been hell for most colleges — canceled classes, dorm closures, outbreaks and deaths. No one wants a repeat.
But the failures and rare successes of the semester might help universities prepare for next year. Many schools plan to bring more students back for the spring semester, even though coronavirus cases in their communities continue to rise.
In part, that’s a financial consideration: Students paying room and board are crucial for strained budgets. But it also reflects schools’ confidence that they have learned how to handle the pandemic.
A picture of successful campus containment has emerged: Maintain social distancing. Contact trace assiduously. Put more faith in students by calibrating restrictions properly.
The most important piece of the puzzle seems to be aggressive testing. Many colleges that ran their own testing programs successfully kept cases low; those that didn’t often became hot spots.
New England, home to many American colleges, could have had a disastrous semester. But colleges prioritized testing, with many joining a partnership with the Broad Institute, and kept cases low. In Vermont and Massachusetts, college presidents and officials credited aggressive testing regimens with low positivity rates on CONTINUE READING: How to Return to Campus Safely: Test, Then Test Again - The New York Times