With No Students, Small College Town Worries over Future


Many colleges and universities in the United States are in small towns around America. When the coronavirus struck in March, students went home, leaving the towns empty.


So, what will happen to those communities in the near future? The New York town of Ithaca is about to find out.


In Ithaca, most of the 24,000 students at Cornell University and 6,200 from Ithaca College have left. Now, locals who run businesses that depend on students' money are wondering if things will ever return to normal.


"It's going to be hard. I mean, normally we have about seven months that the colleges are here," said Gregar Brous. He runs several restaurants in Ithaca. He has brought about 100 of his usual 330 employees back to work.


Brous added that one of the biggest problems for small businesses is that there are "so many unknowns."


Ithaca College says its students will return to the school in the autumn. But they will do so in October, several weeks later than usual. Cornell – one of America's so-called Ivy League Schools –says it plans to bring students back this fall. But they also will arrive weeks later than usual.


Many people expect that even if students do return, they will mostly stay on campus and not go out to restaurants and bars. Locals also worry that returning students will bring COVID-19 into their community.

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