Colleges Try and Fail to Stop Campus Partying To Slow Covid Spread

But Ms. Turner said the university tried to approach discipline through “a restorative justice perspective, so we see it as a learning experience, how you take these types of situations and grow from them.” On Friday, the university said it was retesting students in fraternities and sororities because they had a higher positive rate, 3 percent, than the general student population at 1 percent, and two fraternity houses account for 30 of the 49 students in isolation.

At some schools, social media is being monitored for potential violations. Since most students began returning to West Virginia University’s flagship campus on Aug. 15, postings have documented large parties and students sitting maskless on front porches without social distancing, G. Corey Farris, the dean of students, said.

Some are complaints, he said, and others are “hey, look at me, I’m having a great time.” Campus officials often see the posts before the police do, and use them to track down potential problems. Surrounding Monongalia County had a surge of cases in July that has mostly tapered off.

Mr. Farris said the university had received two or three reports of social gatherings of more than 25 people, which are barred by the governor’s executive order. But he acknowledged that parties are hard to police because by the time the authorities arrive, the guests have scattered, and investigators are left looking at leases and deeds for the tenants or owners.

“As a society, we’re struggling with it all over the place, whether on a college campus, or going to the grocery store or people going to their churches and synagogues,” Mr. Farris said. “It’s not just students who are struggling with it.”

That is cold comfort for the teaching assistants and residence hall advisers who at many institutions have become the first line of campus pandemic defense. Desirae Embree, a graduate student at Texas A&M University who teaches two undergraduate classes — one online, the other in person — said that if students come to her class without face masks, “right now the recommendation is that we tell them to leave.”

Students working at residence halls say policing public health adds to their usual workload, which already can range from organizing group outings to handling sexual assault reports and suicide threats.