You're missing context. Unis are being sued because they're refusing to refund money for goods and services not being delivered. If I'm choosing to attend a uni because they say they'll have in person class, then I need to know they're not shutting down if someone gets ill. So what are they going to do to make sure they're going to fulfill their agreement with me? If I'm taking on tens of thousands in student loans that I cannot mitigate through bankruptcy, then it's on the university to tell me what they're going to do to allieviate the threat of closure. That's not on the students, that's on the institution. If a school lies, or doesn't tell us what they're doing, that's no longer on the student.
Further, you, nor I, have any idea what true neglect is. That's for the courts to decide. What if a football player becomes ill because he ran into a sick player, and contaminated the team? Shouldn't the school have anticipated that such a thing could occur? Did the uni show neglect exposing players to infection? If the symptoms are latent, then it's very well possible that an outbreak can occur months later. It's not the student's decision if the admins decide to play sports and violate established health protocols. That's a definite possibility of happening, so how can students be held culpable?
Again, where are the guarantees, or assurances, that the school is going to honor their bargains with students, faculty, and staff, that everything has been covered? I'm not seeing anything, not just from ND, but other schools, as well.
The point is that universities are asking the Trump administration to make them exempt from lawsuits. That underscores they cannot make their campuses safe from outbreak, no matter how many janitors they hire. If ND is going to reopen the campus, what have they done to make it safe, where other unis seemeingly cannot? They have to show what they're doing that other unis are not. So, where's the proof??
ND, and all unis, have the choice to reopen, go online, cancell sports, and all uni sponsored gatherings. Given all that's happening, it's probably the most prudent thing to do. Precedent has been set in that the Cal State System, the largest in America, isn't reopening in the fall. Just ain't safe. So why them, and not ND???
Link: http://Cr