The Atlantic

The Corner That State Universities Have Backed Themselves Into

For schools to do the right thing would be financial suicide.
Source: Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty

Updated at 12:40 p.m. ET on August 28, 2020.

The COVID-19 disaster has come to college with startling speed. Within a week of reopening, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had reported four clusters of five or more cases in two residence halls, a private apartment complex housing some students, and a fraternity, forcing the school to frantically backtrack on its plans. Michigan State was not far behind, suspending in-person classes in the face of COVID-19 concerns.*

This crisis was not only predictable; . And yet even now, many other public universities across the country appear to be holding to the same plans, praying that the plague of COVID-19 will pass them over. Why have so

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