Probably because they didn't consider the downside to their decision. They don't empathize with the students who can't possibly learn the material without a classroom environment, or for those who worked and dreamed of attending that University for years only to be sent the bill without most of the benefit. To say nothing of those students who literally don't have a (safe) place to live lined up besides being on-campus.
The people making the decision are Administrators who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to cash the tuition checks and did the calculus that they could shut down "for the safety of their students and faculty" and still cash those checks.
> And US college is about a lot more than classes.
Absolutely true. I'd say classes are no more than half of what you're paying for. Harvard and Princeton just announced today that many students will be returning in the fall, but still taking classes online. They want freshman and juniors to return in the fall, and sophomores and seniors to return in the spring.
If the decision was simply based on the actual data, the reality is that the student body is much more at risk from the drugs and alcohol on campus than they are at risk from SARS-CoV-2. More to the point; if you take a holistic view, the social, economic, physical and mental welfare of their student body is massively degraded overall by canceling on-campus housing and classes versus by holding them.
