As with anything, opening college campuses is a major risk, and requires much research, planning, and reflection. Over 16 million students are currently enrolled at some kind of university this year, many of them eager to return back to “normal”. Universities have put in place carefully crafted reopening plans, but there is no guarantee they will be effective. Schools across the United States have successfully reopened, and cases are spiking. The biggest question most people have regarding the reopening is, “Are the benefits enough to justify the costs?” 

Son, Changwon, et al. “Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 22, no. 9, Sept. 2020. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2196/21279.    This article demonstrates the effect online learning has had on college students. The author notes that COVID-19 has placed large amounts of stress and anxiety on students, leading many to fall behind in school and other areas in life. From a study performed on college students in Texas, 91% of the students reported they were negatively impacted by the pandemic, with 86% citing lack of social interactions due to online learning. The author suggests schools look into this issue and recommends they look to find alternatives that can help students through this hard time, which, if the situation allows, could point to bringing students back on campus. Online learning has proven to be very lonely and isolating, and many students need to be back in a social environment where they can interact with their peers. Prolonged isolation may prove to be detrimental to students' mental health as time goes on. Bradley EH, An M, Fox E. Reopening Colleges During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic—One Size Does Not Fit All. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(7):e2017838. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17838This article highlights the different ways schools can safely reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously every school is different, and different strategies can be applied to different situations. For example, bigger schools may need to employ stricter restrictions and more social distancing measures than a smaller school. Some schools may decide they cannot safely reopen at full capacity, while others can and predict they will have minimal cases. The way in which a school reopened depends on its size, population, location, and local laws regarding the pandemic. As time goes on, schools can learn from each other and determine what is best for them and their students. This article will provide insight on the morality of opening schools, and show that while every school has the opportunity to bring students on campus, not all of them should. Coryton, Demitri. “What Does the Research Evidence Tell Us about the Effect of Closing and Reopening Schools during the Coronavirus Pandemic?” 14-19 Learning & Skills Bulletin, no. 331, Apr. 2020, pp. 18–27. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=142954038&site=ehost-live.        This article gives an international perspective to the issue of having schools closed during the pandemic. Using data collected from the United Kingdom at the start of their lockdown, the author highlighted some of the key effects shutting down all schools in the UK had on society. It looked into economic impacts, whether or not the lockdown was effective, as well as how successful the switch to online learning was compared to other European countries. This article will provide insights to the effects of having campuses closed, and the possible negative effects we may begin to see in our own societies if schools do not begin to reopen. Andersen, M., Bento, A., Basu, A., Marsicano, C., & Simon, K. (2020, September 23). College Openings, Mobility, and the Incidence of COVID-19 Cases. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.20196048v1.full.pdf html    This article studied two separate colleges and the COVID-19 cases on campus and in the surrounding areas. The researchers carefully monitored cases starting two weeks before classes started up until two weeks after. There was a noticeable link between spikes in cases in areas where students were coming from COVID-19 “hotspots”, pointing to the idea that bringing students back to school from around the country is not exactly safe nor smart. The data found in this study can be used to predict the pattern of coronavirus spread in other campuses across the country. This article shows the effects of opening campus on the local community. Yamey, G., & Walensky, R. (2020, September 01). Covid-19: Re-opening universities is high risk. Retrieved from https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3365This article looks at schools that have reopened for the fall semester, and looks deeper into why they have increased spread of COVID-19. Looking at other countries’ successful reopening of schools, researchers saw that the most effective way to stop the spread on college campuses was to first stop community spread. This has also shown to have been true in the United States, with case counts being relatively low in areas that have stopped community COVID-19 spread. Researchers then went on to say that in order to have a safe reopening, schools should have a thorough and efficient testing strategy which allows cases to be caught before they can spread. This article sheds light on some of the issues facing the reopening of schools in the United States.

In March 2020, the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the United States and began multiplying rapidly. Colleges and universities quickly sent students home to prevent outbreaks on their campuses and slow the spread of the virus. This move left students to navigate the online learning environment alone, providing them with little help and no information for what the future would hold. Now, six months later, as our lives begin to return to somewhat normal, many schools have opened back up for the fall semester. With so much still unknown about COVID-19 and its effects, there is much debate whether this was a safe decision made in the best interest of everyone at stake. This decision affects students, local communities, and the universities themselves, and presents an extensive list of effects to each demographic. As we look into this issue, the question is, “Are the benefits of having campuses open enough to outweigh the costs?”Students rely on universities as a place to live, learn, and have experiences unavailable to them at home. For them, opening college campuses is necessary for them to have an effective learning experience while forming personal relationships with their professors and peers. However, living in dorms and apartments while being given autonomy is a perfect recipe for COVID to start to spread. This is the main concern of those against opening campuses, as they fear the effects on the student body as well as local communities.    Small college towns rely on student business to keep their economies running. Local businesses suffered major losses with the absence of students from March-August, and many would have closed had students not come back to school. While the presence of students benefits business, it poses the threat of major COVID outbreaks that worry many residents of these towns. Most college towns were reporting relatively low numbers of cases before students returned, only to have these numbers spike come August.     ​Universities themselves had the dual responsibility of ensuring students received a high-quality education while also protecting the health and safety of students, faculties, and local communities. They also suffered financially during the spring and summer, and many schools are millions of dollars in debt. Opening campuses poses the opportunity to recover some lost funds, while also risking further damage to the school and community.