Students are weary of online classes. But colleges can't say if they'll open in fall 2020.

College students threatened to revolt if universities put another semester of classes online to avoid spreading the coronavirus – but that's increasingly what campus leaders are considering doing.For Ryan Sessoms, a marketing student at the University of North Florida, the transition to online classes has been rocky. “If it’s going to be online at the same tuition price, then I’ll just wait for the spring semester.”Grayce Marquis, 20, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, told USA TODAY she was joking when she tweeted about skipping the fall semester after the college’s chancellor raised the possibility of putting fall classes online. They need students, with their tuition and housing payments, as much as students need them.How virus affects higher education:Coronavirus could change where students go to college, if they go at allThe reality is no one knows what the fall semester will look like, said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president for the American Council for Education, a national trade group of universities. If social distancing requires colleges to keep students at home for another semester, the fallout could remake America’s higher education system, upending everything from students’ degree attainment to the economies of college towns.Empty college towns:Stunned by coronavirus, a college town slowly awakens to a surreal worldNews of universities suggesting another online semester spread rapidly and, at times, incorrectly. A slimmer 5% of colleges have committed to online classes for the fall semester.The fall semester may seem far out, but for higher education, it’s basically here, said Wendy Kilgore, director of research at the association. The semester will start later than normal, and students will not take a traditional four-course semester, said Eric Boynton, provost and dean of the college.Instead, the semester will be split in half: Students will take two more intensive courses in the first seven weeks and two more after that.The goal, Boynton said, is to minimize disruption should the college need to pivot to online learning again suddenly.