This has put an immense pressure on universities and international students. In particular, due to the very short time to make any changes, this announcement has posed a serious challenge.
The title is also not describing it right: they must leave the US if they want to keep attending a college that is going online-only (or a college that is doing hybrid instruction, but all the classes they need that term are online only).
This essentially maintains the existing status quo without updating it for the new realities. It was already true that you couldn't stay in the USA on a student Visa if you were not taking face-to-face classes. They're continuing to enforce that without changing anything for the changed world reality.
Put pressure on universities to have in person classes, thus making it appear like things are "back to normal" for US based students before election day? The college educated suburban voter is where Trump has been shedding support.
