The challenges facing residential colleges and universities as they ponder the resumption of in-person classes are complex. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who heads the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, remarked on Meet the Press on May 10 that current capacity for COVID-19 testing was not enough “when 35,000 kids and faculty show up on the University of Tennessee campus in August.”

Two days later, California State University, which enrolls nearly half a million students, announced it will cancel most of its fall semester in-person classes and go online. Lost in the glare of all these news-dominating headlines is the simple fact that American colleges and universities do not come in one size, nor do the solutions for ensuring public health on their campuses.