//Why some colleges are winning against Covid-19, and others are losing

Why some colleges are winning against Covid-19, and others are losing

Students at the University of South Carolina carry their dinners across campus on August 10. Since the campus reopened, the university has reported more than 2,300 student Covid-19 cases. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images

College campuses are coronavirus breeding grounds. They don’t have to be.

In the last weekend of August, officials in the city of Columbia — home to the University of South Carolina — broke up a pool party where more than 200 college students were packed into a courtyard. “It was like Mardi Gras,” the fire chief told a local paper. “Nobody was practicing social distancing. Nobody was wearing a mask,” despite a local ordinance requiring so. “That was just the perfect storm to spread the virus,” he later said.

Over the next few days, the university registered more than 435 new Covid-19 cases. Other illegal parties near the campus, including