I do believe we are several months away from a “go or no go” decision by parents and students as to whether or not to attend college in the fall. In the meantime, colleges need to work furiously to establish safe campus environments. Whatever a respective college’s decision is relative to reopening, parents and students will decide whether or not to come back based on whether or not they feel safe.
Here is an analogous situation. With little else to do right now, I spend a lot of time working on my house and yard. As such I make 1 or 2 trips per week to either Lowes or Home Depot. I’ve effectively stopped going to Lowes because they are disorganized, out-of-stock in many items and I don’t feel particularly safe with the way they enforce mask wearing and social distancing guidelines.
On the other hand, Home Depot does an excellent job. There is one door in and one door out. Employees monitor the number of customers in the store at any one time with a limit of 75. For those waiting to get in, they have set up a rope line with posts and signage at 6’ intervals. Most people do self checkout, but even there, HD has marked off waiting spots with floor tape 6’ apart. To the extent you might use a cashier, they are positioned behind plexiglass panels. Everyone wears a mask.
For colleges, retailers, restaurants and hundreds of other businesses, the key to a successful reopening will lie in their ability to instill confidence in students, parents, employees and customers that they are providing as safe an environment as possible.