University communities must sue to keep campuses closed during COVID-19.

The relationship between universities and their neighbors is notoriously complex. COVID-19 is about to make it worse. Given that schools across the country plan to take students back to campus in early August, the surrounding areas are likely to see sharp spikes in COVID-19 cases. Local governments, businesses and individual residents do not need to be sitting ducks. They can and should sue now to prevent the reopening of the campus or to require universities to implement security measures that protect the surrounding communities.

Universities do not and cannot operate in a bubble. Students, faculty, and staff live off campus, use public transportation to and from campus, shop, have families with children who go to school, and spouses who work in area businesses. If a campus becomes a site of COVID-19 infections, the disease can quickly spread throughout an area. Side effects include overloading the capacity of local hospitals, jeopardizing the health of medical personnel and other front-line workers, possibly precipitating economically damaging blockades, and exacerbating the racial disparities in which the pandemic occurs and how strong.

While faculty point these issues out to university administrators and, in some cases, reject reopens, they are not the only ones who can take action now to avoid these consequences. A wide range of individuals and organizations can and should take preventive legal action, suing universities on the grounds that the reopening of campuses threatens the public good. To wear these suits, the parties must demonstrate that they will suffer damage in addition to the general well-being. Many people and organizations are positioned to do this.

For example, a local chapter of the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers, unions that organize K-12 teachers across the country, may file a claim on behalf of their members based on the additional burden. Planned for local teachers and their students should the university increase infections as elementary schools also try to reopen. School boards and parent associations could join such claims. Similarly, a hospital serving the community could file a claim alleging that bringing students from across the country to relatively close quarters could lead to an overload of beds in the ICU.

By demonstrating that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm if the campus is reopened, vulnerable people living near universities, hospitals, labor unions, and local governments, among others, should be able to obtain specific and anticipated relief. Remedies can range from requirements to take specific precautionary measures, including reengineering campus buildings to minimize the chances of spread of infection, to mandates that all or nearly all instructions be carried out completely online without reopen buildings.

Those who are neighbors of universities could approach them informally first to seek commitments that schools will take specific measures to prevent their campuses from becoming sources of disease. Hospitals and local governments may request financial contributions in advance to ease the pandemic-related tensions that campus reopens will put on health care systems and other local infrastructure. If universities are not susceptible to such overtures, then a formal legal process can be initiated.

Colleges and universities naturally first consider their own needs and interests. When it comes to COVID-19, it is more imperative than ever that they also serve those off-campus whom they affect so powerfully. Your neighbors are entitled to such consideration. If not available, the Public Unrest Act provides a legal tool to obtain it.

It makes more sense for those who are likely to become ill or harmed by university reopens during this pandemic to take prophylactic legal action rather than await damages and sue for damages later. By considering and formulating annoying actions now, those who live and work near universities can gain a voice on how these institutions behave this fall and as long as COVID-19 presents substantial risks.