I've been doing some research on institutional responses to the Spanish flu. 40 out of the country's 43 largest cities closed their public schools. Tons of public celebrations and gatherings were cancelled. Universities are hubs of young people, aka the people most vulnerable to the Spanish flu. While some schools did unroll some more or less strict guidelines, not many schools sent the kids home. Why is that?
One thing to establish is that in 1918, attending college was a fairly uncommon event in a young person's life. According to the NCES, there were 1,041 designated institutions of higher education in 1918. By 1992, there were 3600. Also according to NCES, 3.4% of 18 to 24-year-olds were enrolled in college in 1917-1918, 4.7% in 1918-1919. By 1991, the percentage was up to 51% (but also, in 1990, 44% of enrolled students were over the age of 24.) In contrast, there were hundreds, if not thousands of schools in some cities and states as districts were only just beginning to merge.
In addition, Fall semester of American colleges doesn't nearly track onto the Fall months. Many colleges of the era started in mid to late-August and ended after Thanksgiving or in mid-December, meaning young people arrived during a lull in the pandemic while others were attending college near where they lived. It's safe to say everything that happened at universities during the pandemic was fairly idiosyncratic. However, we can see a few patterns and it looks like most colleges made the call to quarantine sick students, require masks, and teach outdoors when possible.
Genevive Carlton did a nice round-up here of different moves at different colleges. Her findings are interesting and speak to what was happening around the country:
One thing that I think can't be separated from the pandemic is the impact of World War I on student populations. It looks like there was a policy for closing schools due to Student Army Training Corp activities, concurrent to the flu so it's possible there were schools that closed for the activities, which helped reduce the spread.
From the K-State Collegian on Oct. 18, 1918:
The Aggie football schedule has been interrupted to quite an extent due to the epidemic of the Spanish influenza. The Aggies have been unable to carry out their schedule this season, because of the orders of military authorities, which forbade teams in a valley school where there is an [Student Army Training Corp training] to leave their school for more than a day. The closing of the schools throughout the valley has likewise made it impossible to schedule games with teams within one day‘s traveling distances.
It had been planned by Coach Clevenger to have Kansas University here this Saturday for a game, but the closing of the school made it necessary to cancel this game. It is currently being planned to schedule a game for a week from Saturday here with either Kansas University, the Haskell Indians or Washburn. A page from the 1918-1919 Royal Purple Yearbook about the "Big Five" - the players expected to lead the team for the season limited by the formation of the Student Army Training Corp and eventually, the Spanish flu epidemic.
Only one Aggie starter has been in the hospital, and it was reported this afternoon that is was fullback Azel Husted. Husted has been quite ill during the past week, but is now starting to improve and is expected to be out of the hospital within the next few days.