Physical & Mental Health

Throughout the pandemic, colleges have served as COVID-19 testing sites for their local communities. Some institutions are developing new testing methods of their own.

Facing a projected squeeze on isolation housing, some colleges modify their polices to allow COVID-positive students to isolate in their dorms—even if they have roommates—or to go home.

A Penn State professor says he was protecting pro–vaccine mandate demonstrators when he struggled with a counterprotester. The professor was vindicated in court, but Penn State wants to fire him anyway.

Part performance, part protest, a professor’s video got him suspended from Ferris State University. He didn’t want to teach in person in the first place due to COVID-19, and he says he’s retiring. His union says the suspension is an attack on academic freedom.

Successful mitigation measures allow colleges to bring students back to campus, even as COVID-19 cases are taking off. Strategies vary by campus, with some efforts limited by governing boards.

Some colleges say cloth masks will no longer meet their masking requirements, and they are requiring medical-grade masks instead.

Some institutions that began the semester online are now pushing their return-to-campus dates further out in response to Omicron, citing spiking numbers and breakthrough infections.

With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 raging, a majority of institutions are putting their trust in vaccines and tried and true mitigation strategies to bring students back to campus this semester.