I spent most of the last week talking to Pennsylvania college administrators about the fall semester, looking to get beyond the "opening" or "not opening" (false) dichotomy.

Here is a sampling of what these senior administrators told me (thread): https://papost.org/2020/08/03/id-be-nuts-not-to-be-anxious-pa-college-administrators-prepare-for-unpredictable-fall-semester/

“It was kind of fashionable late in May and in June for institutions to say, ‘We’re gonna start early because there’s gonna be a surge of COVID in the late fall.' I mean, that’s just impossible to predict.” - Arcadia University Provost Jeff Rutenbeck

"We should not be at this point five months into it where every institution is trying to figure out how they get tests and how they can contact trace. It’s a major national failure." - Dickinson President Margee Ensign

“I polled my senior staff members, and one said, ‘I don’t think I can live with myself if we bring students back and people die as a direct consequence of it.’ That’s it. That’s where we are … I think we’re all at peace with where we landed.” - Ensign

"Every college president everywhere right now is sleepless with worry about how to get all the details worked out. The biggest single factor for me is things that are outside our control." - Franklin & Marshall President Barbara Altmann

"We can’t manage what our students do on their own time. So we can either assume a massive change in the behavior of young people or we could adapt our plans understanding what their behavior is likely to be." - Slippery Rock President William Behre

"What is happening is that some people go for the test and they think because they are negative, they will never get it, and then they get into riskier behaviors.” - Millersville President Daniel Wubah, a microbiologist

Takeaways:
- "Reopening" does not mean "normal semester"
- Even where "reopenings" are happening, significant numbers of students and faculty do NOT plan to return to campus
- Most colleges are not reducing tuition
- College presidents are anxious

More: https://papost.org/2020/08/03/id-be-nuts-not-to-be-anxious-pa-college-administrators-prepare-for-unpredictable-fall-semester/