From a teacher friend....the last paragraph nails it!

[cab67]

47. It's complicated for public universities.

Most people don't realize just how much of a public university's revenue comes from tuition. In order to function, we rely on students from out of state who pay higher tuition. My own institution worked very hard to recruit students from out of state (and out of the country) in the aftermath of the 2008 recession just to blunt the apocalyptic budget cuts coming from state appropriations.

Who would send their kid to college in another state if the kid is working from home in a virtual environment?

I completely understand why opening classes this fall is seriously problematic, but efforts to keep at least some in-person teaching aren't about making extra money - they're about preventing furloughs and worse.

(Moreover, some classes simply cannot be taught in a virtual environment. They require equipment that can't be replicated online, or they're field-based courses. Some such courses are required for the majors in my department. We've been waiving the requirements for students at the present time, given the situation, but we might have to completely reconfigure the major if this becomes a long-term problem. And many would regard the reconfigured major without the non-virtual content to be a diminished, less competitive degree.)

Just trying to shed light on some of the thinking behind the push. It's not merely greediness or carelessness; it's an acknowledgment that the current situation creates very real complications or everyone.