Northeastern University kicked 11 students out for violating COVID rules. It's keeping their tuition.

A student on campus
(Image credit: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Hundreds of thousands of students from across the world have descended on America's university campuses for the start of the academic year, and college towns have become the "new front in America's pandemic," The New York Times reports. Despite efforts to curtail the coronavirus' spread, cases have spiked in about 100 college towns, according to a Times analysis. While "there has been no uptick in deaths in college communities," the concern is that students — many of whom are asymptomatic — will spread the disease to older, more vulnerable people.

For all the lofty rhetoric about academic duty of care, one big reason colleges vowed to reopen this fall is because they need the money. The University of Iowa, for example, was facing a budget shortfall of $75 million thanks to coronavirus, the Times reports. Now, "Iowa City is a full-blown pandemic hot spot."

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Jessica Hullinger

Jessica Hullinger is a writer and former deputy editor of The Week Digital. Originally from the American Midwest, she completed a degree in journalism at Indiana University Bloomington before relocating to New York City, where she pursued a career in media. After joining The Week as an intern in 2010, she served as the title’s audience development manager, senior editor and deputy editor, as well as a regular guest on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. Her writing has featured in other publications including Popular Science, Fast Company, Fortune, and Self magazine, and she loves covering science and climate-related issues.