Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
After sending students home, holding virtual graduations and refunding more than $170 million this spring, Ohio colleges and universities are now grappling with how they’ll offer instruction for the fall semester and wondering how many students will be on campus.
May is typically when freshmen commit to enrolling and put down deposits, though many schools bumped that deadline to June.
Some colleges are planning for scenarios that include online learning, in-person classes or a blended combination. But also uncertain is whether campus life will include bustling dorms, large lectures, hands-on labs, packed football stadiums and the other offerings that are part of the quintessential on-campus experience.
“I’ve seen some national data that show particularly the very expensive private (schools) might suffer. We might gain some students of those who decide that Vanderbilt at $40,000 a year isn’t worth it if there is not a face-to-face experience and they’d rather go to Miami or Wright State. Having said that, I think folks will question that,” said Bruce Johnson of the Inter-University Council, which represents Ohio’s 14 public universities. “That’s why we are definitely planning on being open and having students on campus.”
Johnson added that society isn’t likely to return to “normal” anytime soon and no one really knows what it’ll look like by fall.
“Most of our colleges and universities are making plans for in-person, on-campus instruction. I think they know very well that they need to provide the safest, healthiest conditions for students, faculty, staff and the public,” said Randy Gardner, Ohio’s chancellor of higher education.
