Should colleges bring students back to campus in the fall?

In March, millions of college students saw their worlds upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Fears of spreading the virus forced America’s universities to hastily shut down in-person instruction and transition to an ad hoc system of distance learning. With the spring semester ending for many, all eyes have shifted to whether colleges will welcome students back to their campuses in the fall.

There are more than 4,000 higher-education institutions in the U.S. Each is developing its own plans for the fall semester. It’s impossible to know what the state of...