Communities surrounding colleges and universities have been
among the hardest struck by COVID-19 outbreaks this
fall.1 After the University of Georgia welcomed students
back for the fall semester, its home county – the
state's smallest – had “the highest two-week
total of new cases for any of Georgia's 159 counties, and one
of the highest per capita in the nation.”2
The county ultimately saw its COVID-19 deaths more than
double in six weeks.3 Researchers have estimated that,
nationwide, reopening campuses for in-person instruction
“could be associated with more than 3,000 additional cases of
COVID-19 per day.”4
In their ongoing COVID-19 risk assessments, school
administrators should account for the risk that the potential pool
of future litigants may extend beyond their respective student or
faculty bodies. Those litigants may include, among others, the
cities and states they call home. Plaintiffs have already brought
“public nuisance” suits against a range
