[Goose]

It is pretty reasonable to believe that even with great compliance having basically a "normal" student situation, i.e. in-person classes and two to a room in the dorms that eventually COVID-19 would spread quickly. If the student body wasn't known to be COVID-19 negative to start with, that spread would start quickly. You can't social distance in full classrooms. Therefore, it was never going to work.
However, there is a quote from the student newspaper that captures what our problem in the USA is, IMHO.

But University leadership should have expected students, many of whom are now living on their own for the first time, to be reckless. Reports of parties throughout the weekend come as no surprise. Though these students are not faultless, it was the University’s responsibility to disincentivize such gatherings by reconsidering its plans to operate in-person earlier on.

In other words, students being reckless is normal, should be expected, and "somebody" should protect them from their own behavior. I believe that the main difference between our society and the European societies is that nobody in Europe expects that one should be protected from their own recklessness by others. Actions have consequences. Europeans also do reckless things, but they don't expect a "nanny" to take care of them when they do.

[Goose]

It is pretty reasonable to believe that even with great compliance having basically a "normal" student situation, i.e. in-person classes and two to a room in the dorms that eventually COVID-19 would spread quickly. If the student body wasn't known to be COVID-19 negative to start with, that spread would start quickly. You can't social distance in full classrooms. Therefore, it was never going to work.
However, there is a quote from the student newspaper that captures what our problem in the USA is, IMHO.

But University leadership should have expected students, many of whom are now living on their own for the first time, to be reckless. Reports of parties throughout the weekend come as no surprise. Though these students are not faultless, it was the University’s responsibility to disincentivize such gatherings by reconsidering its plans to operate in-person earlier on.

In other words, students being reckless is normal, should be expected, and "somebody" should protect them from their own behavior. I believe that the main difference between our society and the European societies is that nobody in Europe expects that one should be protected from their own recklessness by others. Actions have consequences. Europeans also do reckless things, but they don't expect a "nanny" to take care of them when they do.