[kogus]

I think your second point is incorrect. I work closely with several universities, and the current situation has increased, not reduced, the pressure on their budget. IT infrastructure upgrades, producing training materials, the loss of rent income from university owned housing, and many other factors all combine to far outweigh any savings from not having to run the hallway water fountains.

Having said that, a university telling a student they must pay full price for less than full value is expecting the customer to essentially give a charitable donation to a business model "because we need it".

To attempt an analogy: if a grocery store had its warehouse burn down, they would not then be able to turn around and charge 10% more than market price on all of their items "because they needed it". That disaster would be a cost they'd have to absorb.

Universities are at least partially insulated from having to respond to the market like a business would, because of the high cost and difficulty of switching schools in the middle of an education. My sense is that if things can return to normal within a year, then they'll recover from this. If they can't open for in person classes for longer than that, then students will take the leap and move away from traditional universities permanently.