The COVID-19 virus continues to spread and affect many parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has announced that we are past the point of being able to contain this disease. While there continue to be no reported cases of the virus on our campus, we need to focus on mitigating its possible effects.
https://www.amherst.edu/news/covid-19/messages-for-the-college-community/node/766550
Wow, so they’re basically kicking everyone off campus?
Keep us posted if anyone asks for a pro-rated refund of their room and board!
@ThisNameNotTaken Yes. I imagine it is pandemonium with everyone scrambling to book domestic and international flights. It’s a sad day at Amherst College.
@Mwfan1921 Lol. I was just telling the hubs that now we probably should buy more toilet paper.
While the effects on Amherst’s campus obviously will be controlled, the effects for Amherst students may not be meliorated.
Indeed.
D21 and I visited Amherst last fall. Our tour guide was awesome. A senior from Texas, with a car, and a 20 something hour drive home. I feel especially bad for her and her fellow seniors. Not the way you picture finishing up, especially at a small school like Amherst.
Yes @merc81 you are so right. The students even had a sit in last night in protest of the decision.
@ThisNameNotTaken Lovely Amherst. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It is such a special place for sure. I am sad that the culmination of their hard work and lives built around this college will end abruptly without the usual excitement and senior celebrations. My daughter and her friends aren’t graduating this year, but had planned their end of the school year trip to include returning to Amherst to send off their friends and classmates at graduation. I know there are far worse things. They get to be sad and that’s okay.
In the process of making plans now to get my son home to the west coast! We are full pay so I will be asking for a refund of room and board - keep you posted on whether we receive anything!
@CasablancaFan I noticed that today’s email from President Biddy stated, “If the spread of the virus and its impact should unexpectedly abate later this semester, we will be delighted to bring you back.” That sounds to me like, “Parents hold your horses on requesting refunds.” lol. Honestly, I would love nothing more than to have all those kids happily watching a baseball game back at Memorial field.
Ah and just as I mention baseball, an announcement about games resuming if classes restart on campus:
I called this morning and asked about refunding room and board.
Called the number on Biddy’s email.
They told me they would be giving a pro rata refund of the room and board portion of the Comprehensive Fee.
I suggest as many parents call and confirm, to help lock them down on this.
My child is a senior and I too have been full pay. After being denied any financial aid. It hasn’t been easy.
It is only fair for them to refund. There is no basis for this action. It’s not required by anything, there’s no government declared emergency affecting the campus, there’s no known cases in the area, etc.
It’s not what’s recommended by CDC or any other guidelines.
In fact, it’s contrary to guidelines. It is a forced “reverse quarantine” and it is forcing 1,800 students to leave a relatively safe area and spread throughout the country, unnecessarily traveling and many flying long distances, layovers etc.
It’s also not in line with what the other 3,000+ colleges are doing or likely to do.
My point I guess is this is on Amherst and its administration. It’s certainly not being forced on them by anything or anyone, and it’s questionable whose interest(s) they are looking out for by taking this extreme and hasty action. They’ll do what they want, but I see no reasonable argument for refusing to refund room and board.
Totally agree with you THanson. Sending my son across country on a plane Thursday is more likely to cause him to contract Coronavirus than staying there. At least leave the door open to return if there are no new cases in a few weeks! I got a text from my son just now that they have been provided with boxes to pack their rooms and that there is a graduation ceremony planned for the seniors tomorrow. I really hope that is not true - graduation with no family attending?!
They really need some grownup leadership.
These old line endowment rich colleges essentially run themselves. Because of their branding they are essentially competition-free monopolies.
So you can have figurehead people running them, living in a fantasy world, mainly just traveling the country raising funds and shaking hands, and it’s ok.
Until something like this happens. Then they’re exposed.
My son has had a wonderful experience at Amherst for 3.75 years. There’s no question it’s an amazing, really almost magical place to learn.
He’s grown personally and academically beyond expectation. His critical thinking and writing are light years ahead of where he was when he started.
He had amazing internships all 3 summers, and is going to a dream job right after graduation.
He’s made incredible life long friends. (In fact he’s liked everyone he’s met there, it’s a wonderful community).
And the administration has kept things going smoothly and have generally at least tried to appear even handed and non political.
So we have nothing but great things to say about Amherst.
But this was beyond them and handled very poorly.
Is it likely that the other NESCAC schools follow this same protocol? I saw that earlier today Middlebury announced a similar plan.
As of 9:30 pm, my senior has not been told that (nor has any of his friends he spoke with).
@flgrl1007 It will be interesting to see since on Colby’s website they listed each of the NESCAC schools along with President’s names as continuing to “consult regularly and provide support to one another.”
So far Amherst, Middlebury and now Tufts just asked students not to return after Spring break.
Maybe by coincidence, but I don’t think they’d implement policy based an the athletic conference.
I checked the Williams Page. As of now, they are taking a more measured approach.
“In most cases, college policies will closely follow CDC, WHO and State Department guidance, as well as the latest medical advice.”
Email received:
We have received several inquiries about our policies for reimbursing room and board payments. For students who will leave campus due to guidance related to COVID-19, we will provide refunds for the pro-rata portion of comprehensive fee payments made to the College related to room and board for the time that students are away. Since we do not yet know how long students will be away from campus, we do not know the amount of this reimbursement. We will communicate and process these refunds as soon as possible once the duration is known.
@THanson I just got that, too. Thanks for posting. I sure would hate to be the person who had the job of answering all of those phone calls today.