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By Lara Korte 
 AUSTIN, Texas _ As the start of a new semester draws nearer, universities across the state are preparing to welcome students back to classes and, in some cases, back to classrooms.
 But with cases of coronavirus continuing to climb in Texas, some are apprehensive about returning to face-to-face instruction.
 The University of Texas System, which oversees 14 health and university institutions and nearly 240,000 students, says it will offer courses in a hybrid format, with some classes online and some in-person.
 At a Board of Regents meeting last month, UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken defended the choice to bring some classes back to campus. The decision was not merely a choice between fiscal viability and safety, he said. If classes are only online this fall, many students will drop out, which could hurt their chances at graduation, the chancellor said.
 "Through surveys of our students as well as national surveys, we knew that many students were reconsidering plans for the fall, and that many indicated they would not enroll if universities were planning to be completely online for the fall," Milliken told regents at a June 29 meeting.
 "We know from student surveys that if we do not open, many students will choose to pause their education, and we know from research that pausing has an impact on persistence and graduation," he also told regents.
 But when The Austin American-Statesman asked to see the surveys the chancellor was referencing, a spokeswoman said he was actually referring to national surveys, and sent along three links to national studies, which varied in results.
 An April survey from a research group called EY-Parthenon found that 23% of those who expect remote classes would consider withdrawing, but 65% said they would expect tuition to decrease if classes remained online. (UT leaders say costs will remain the same for the fall semester, regardless of how they're presented.)
 Another national survey, conducted in May by an organization called BrightSpot, found that 81% of students will return in the fall, a figure that is "consistent with typical retention," the study said. Meanwhile, only 39% of respondents reported thinking that their education was worth the cost. In fact, the survey found that the pandemic has doubled student perceptions that their education isn't worth the cost.
 A third national survey of more than 20,000 students from the Higher Education Data Sharing consortium, or HEDS, found that 73% of students reported that they would return this fall. Four percent said either definitely no or probably no.
 The system spokeswoman also pointed to a late-spring survey at the University of Texas, Arlington that found 46% of students were holding off on enrolling because of uncertainties around the coronavirus.
 Later, the spokeswoman sent along the results of a May survey from the University of Texas, El Paso that asked students about their preferences for the fall semester _ 46% said they preferred either all online or mostly online classes, and 39% said they preferred either all or mostly face-to-face classes. Fifteen percent said they may not enroll.
 On Friday, Milliken said in a statement that online-only was not the best way to go for the fall semester, and that the current model gives students options to tailor their education to individual circumstances.
 "An online-only experience is not optimal for many students, particularly those who have limited access to technology or an adequate study environment," Milliken said. "If we want students to stay in school and on track, we have an obligation to offer and deliver the educational experience they need and deserve."
 UT-El Paso will offer 75% of its courses completely online, with about 5% completely face-to-face. The rest of the 3,400 courses will be offered in some sort of hybrid model.
 President Heather Wilson said if a student isn't able to safely return to campus, the university will work to accommodate them.
 Wilson also said the university is "really worried" about the possibility of students not reenrolling because of a bad experience with remote learning in the spring.
 Over the summer, UT-El Paso staff had one-on-one video calls with students to encourage them to stay in school. So far, the university hasn't seen any increase in its withdrawal or incomplete rates, and fall enrollment isn't falling off.
 "The students persisted," Wilson said. "And I hope they don't get tired of persisting."
 When it comes to the largest flagship campus, UT Austin, students were not surveyed about their preferences for the fall semester.
 A spokesman for the university said students were not asked if the type of classes offered would affect their fall enrollment, although they were surveyed about the quality of the spring semester. In May, a survey of UT Austin students found 94.2% of undergraduates and 95% of graduates intended to enroll in the fall, the spokesman said.
 UT Austin plans to hold many of its 11,000 classes online this semester and will end the term early, sending home most students after Thanksgiving break.
 Students may choose to conduct their semester online, in person or as a hybrid of the two. Not all classes will be available online, however, so UT is encouraging students to assess how such a choice would affect their paths toward graduation.
 Although there was a student working group that offered input for fall plans and the university held focus groups in the spring, some UT Austin students said they feel their input hasn't been considered.
 Student leaders in UT's Senate of College Councils said it was for this exact reason that they decided to launch their own survey this week, with hopes of getting results by the end of the month.
 "I think just many students overall felt disconnected from the decision making process and that their voices weren't heard," said Apoorva Chintala, a UT senior and membership director for the Senate of College Councils. "Throughout our experience with the working group, the university has been pretty set in the reopening plan, not changing the modality of it. They're really heading towards this hybrid model of learning."
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 Students said they've heard a lot of fear from their peers about returning for the fall semester. Steven Ding, a UT senior and policy director for the senate, pointed to incidents like one at the University of Washington, where nearly 120 students were infected with the coronavirus during an outbreak on Greek row this month.
 "College students in general are engaging in high-risk activities that are spreading COVID-19, which poses a significant risk to the entire UT community come this fall," Ding said.
 Ding thinks students agree that being on campus is preferred over the remote learning that occurred in the spring semester. But with rising infections in Travis County and the potential for risky behavior by college students, many feel uncertain about what the next few months will hold.
 "I think that's just putting a lot of angst in students in terms of what the fall is going be like when you suddenly have, potentially, 50,000 people reentering the community in Austin and coming from who knows where," he said.
 UT Austin this month laid out guidelines for what the semester will look like, saying there could be a number of scenarios that would prompt the school to close its campus, such as an increase in the number of positive cases, a shortage of personal protective equipment or testing supplies, or a student death.
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University of Texas chancellor says students won't enroll if classes are all online