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<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-187633p1.html">Monkey Business Images</a>/Shutterstock The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the

content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the _Mother Jones Daily_ newsletter. The decision to re-open

college campuses has been among the most contested battles in how to properly manage the coronavirus pandemic. Weeks into the fall semester, it’s becoming clearer by the day that schools are

not equipped to properly manage the pandemic. Hundreds of students have tested positive since returning to campus, and now many schools are backtracking by sending students home to continue

classes virtually. At the University of Alabama, 1,200 of the school’s 38,500 undergraduates have tested positive. The University of South Carolina’s positive test rate is more than 27

percent, according to Bloomberg. Temple University, Colorado College, the University of North Carolina, and the State University of Oneonta in upstate New York have all already sent students

back home. It’s not hard to explain why containing outbreaks on college campuses is so difficult. While most schools have prohibited large parties, it’s _college_, and communal experiences

like college football games and dorm living are still underway. Unfortunately, despite all the good intentions for social distancing, the responsibility has been put on students, instead of

the institutions, and that means students are essentially being set up to fail. “The irresponsible and downright dangerous actions of a small number of our students have created the very

real possibility of ending an in-person semester,” Chancellor Robert Jones from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. More than 100 students and organizations

at the school have been disciplined for ignoring quarantine guidance. Now, according to the _News Gazette “_campustown becomes a ghost town as UI student lockdown begins.”  Of course, all of

this was predictable from the outset. My colleague Molly Schwartz spoke to one college administrator back and July, who said this: > We know our students want to come back to campus. 

This is not the > college experience that they signed up for. But we have to be > concerned with health and safety. When you think about reopening an > overwhelmingly residential 

campus, and look at the social distancing > requirements that are in place, and the recommendations for > testing—it’s complicated. Many of our residence halls are over > 50 years 

old, and they were built at a time when there was an > emphasis on communal living. You had a roommate, you shared a > bathroom, you share a living space, and all of that flies in the

> face of what’s appropriate in a COVID-19 environment. That school reopened for the semester, and spikes in positive coronavirus tests have already been reported. “We must not relax the

universal precautions that we know keep our community safe,” one dean wrote to UCONN students before long Labor Day weekend. “Wear a mask, stay with your family unit, maintain physical

distance, and remain on campus this weekend.”