'Normal' college schedule means students will return to campus after Thanksgiving, bringing fresh COVID worries

Nov. 28—College students who went home for Thanksgiving will be back in class Monday — a stark contrast to schools' cautious approach to the holidays in 2020.

This time last year, most campuses were emptying out for the semester. After Thanksgiving, nearly every college and university in New Hampshire that had brought students to campus in the fall of 2020 sent them home and switched to remote learning for most of December, including final exams. Students at some institutions did not return to campus until February.

Although New Hampshire is seeing more COVID-19 cases and more hospitalizations than at any point during the pandemic and a new variant looms on the horizon, colleges are persisting with a normal end-of-semester schedule.

Vaccines and regular testing are a major factor in keeping campus life nearly-normal this year, colleges say.

At the institutions tracking vaccinations, nearly all college students are vaccinated and most students are tested at least once a week. Almost all private colleges have vaccine requirements, excepting students with medical contraindications or religious beliefs against vaccination.

Saint Anselm College's director of Health Services, Maura Marshall, said in a statement that the college's high vaccination rate is slowing the spread of the virus and effectively preventing major illness on campus.

But she warned that students who left campus and spent time in nearby Manchester, Goffstown and Bedford were more likely to be in close contact with someone who was carrying the virus who may not be vaccinated.

Vaccination rates are 49% in Manchester, 40% in Goffstown and 59% in Bedford, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

Case in point, Marshall said, was Halloween weekend. The days after brought a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases to some campuses.

Saint Anselm reported 20 cases on Nov. 12, the most recent data available — up from just one case on Oct. 29. The University of New Hampshire also saw a significant case spike after Halloween, jumping from 26 cases on Oct. 25 to 119 on Nov. 1.

The case count has since fallen, with 50 current cases on the Durham campus, and just four new positive tests this week.

Dartmouth College avoided a Halloween spike but has seen almost 100 new cases in the last week of November.

The college reported 63 new cases in undergraduates last week and almost 30 among faculty and staff last week. Two weeks earlier, Dartmouth reported just 10 cases total among students, faculty and staff.

With students gone from campus for Thanksgiving, more increases in the case counts are possible.