Small colleges were already on the brink. Now, coronavirus threatens their existence – USA Today
This is the season when small college campuses across the nation are supposed to be full of potential students peering into classrooms, eating lunch in the dining hall, spending the night in dorms and being wowed by interactions between faculty and students.
Instead, campuses are mostly empty, not only of prospective students, but also already enrolled students. Not having the ability to draw high schoolers to campus means admissions counselors find themselves tied to computers, doing video chats as they extol the virtues of their campus.
No one knows whether video chats and virtual tours will generate the same level of application and enrollment as in-person strolls. The answer will have enormous impact on small liberal arts colleges across the nation, many operating close to the margin already.
“Just going online has a cost,” said Shirley Hoogstra, president of Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, a group of 180 mostly small schools from the U.S. and overseas. “If you are a residential college, you have to figure out what would be a fair repayment to students who are no longer living on campus. There will be additional cleaning costs. It will increase the financial burden on these schools.”