Berklee sent out a notice today that any students going to a state where a state of emergency has been declared are required to self-quarantine for two weeks before they will be allowed to return to campus. My son is scheduled to take the train home for spring break next Friday, and then return to Boston the following Sunday. NJ, where we live, is not there yet, but NY is, and it’s impossible to take Amtrak home (and back) without going through NYC.
So, apart from the possibility of renting a car and driving him both ways (not something I’m particularly anxious to do, although we will if necessary and useful), he will need to self-quarantine. But I’m a little confused–he won’t be home for break for a full two weeks, and even if he were, he’d still have to pass through NY in order to get back to Boston…so another two weeks? And if so, how (he lives in a dorm)? AND I’d bet a lot of money (unless I’ve already lost it all 
) that NJ will be under a state of emergency by the time he’s ready to go back anyway.
Am I missing something? I sent a message to Berklee, and I’ve asked my son to see if he can get more information, but I’m sure they’re swamped at the moment.
Apologies for being the Virus-Poster here! It’s just making things really murky at the moment…
AsMother—— My son isn’t a student at Berklee but has many friends at Berklee. It sounds very risky to have a student back home in State of Emergency with Berklee’s 2-week self quarantine policy. I am now asking a few of his Berklee friends’ parent. My son’s school hasn’t informed / warned us about Spring Break personal traveling except traveling to/from Level-3 countries. So, I assume domestic traveling (any home state) should be fine for now. But it may change very soon or even while he is at home state during 1-week-long spring break (Our state is in State of Emergency).
I already have a problem with United Airline’s new cancellation / delay / refund policy which sounds like “damage control” for United Airline by damaging flyers financially. My son plans to come home to see his sick grandparent. It is already risky but his grandparent really wants to see him. I was about to cancel his flights but United wouldn’t give us refund at all.
I just texted my son to stay in tune. Things may change and he may not be able to fly back home for spring break. It might be better to stick around since dorm and cafeteria are open during spring break. But no firm reasons to believe that no one in his dorm is / will be “positive” to Coronavirus since community spread is going around, around AND around…
I just now saw that NJ has declared a state of emergency. Gosh, I’m, like, a prophet or something!
@JeJeJe , no refund at all? I thought that United was one of the ones at least waiving change fees, if not giving complete refunds. I’m sorry.
Yeah–I’d much rather just get my son home (even if the dorms were to remain open). Every extra day in the dorms and classrooms seems riskier than just getting home and staying home for a while. Not that most people that age are at terrible risk, but I’d rather just avoid the virus altogether, if possible.
Online classes for the rest of the semester (as some colleges seem to be moving toward) seems like a better idea, although for many conservatory students it’s not nearly as practical, for obvious reasons. My son is taking mostly composition and film-scoring classes this semester. I guess they could be reasonably done online, but as far as the private lessons, ensembles, etc., I’m not sure how they could work it out.
I really think that all 50 states including Hawaii will join us by end of this week. It is really going around and more and more people are getting tested. If Massachusetts also declares a State of Emergency, hopefully, Berklee quickly changes a policy of 2-week self quarantine to “all students, no matter having travel history or not, who feels sick or has any flu-like symptoms”. I am still waiting to see if his school notifies some new information of Coronavirus protocol while washing my hands very often!
We just had to change my daughter’s United flight since classes were cancelled this week and she wanted to come home early. They waived the cancellation fee but we had to pay the fare difference. Not sure what would have happened if we tried to cancel it completely.
Virus is in the Boston area right now. Gov. Baker was vacationing in Utah. Massachusetts may be declaring an emergency soon as well.
@compmom --I’m sure you’re right about that, and that’s what I told my son! But he can make his own decision (turns out the dorms will stay open, and he is afraid of missing classes after break if he comes home), unless Berklee makes it for him and they decide to close down on-site classes after break. I guess Berklee knows at least as well as any other school how to do online classes, as they have such a big online program. (I’d forgotten about that yesterday, amid all the confusion!)
This evening on Berklee’s Covid-19 info. page it says that tomorrow morning there will be a community update. My guess is that they will follow suit with Harvard and all of the other schools that are switching over to online studies after break. It just doesn’t make sense for different schools in the same city to have totally different strategies. It wouldn’t be ideal, but for now it seems like the most sensible thing to do, although the in-person interaction between professors and students (especially performance majors, I would guess) seems particularly important in this field.
On the other hand, as I mentioned earlier, Berklee’s online school is pretty well-developed, it seems.
AsMother— My son’s private conservatory in the university has just announced that all in-person classes / lessons / rehearsals this week have been cancelled from tomorrow, then after spring break (same schedule as Berklee’s), “at least” until April 12th!!! It is really happening. We have no ideas about how “online” classes / lessons / rehearsals can be done. But it must be done! Learning shouldn’t stop!
My friend who is a very experienced flight attendant just sent me an message from JFK that her flight was only 30% so passengers have much lower risk of getting infected. My son needs to bring more suitcases back this Saturday than what he planned just for a-week-long trip…
@JeJeJe , I agree–it’s certainly better than nothing, and probably better than sitting in small enclosed spaces with people who have been who-knows-where, repeatedly trying to disinfect shared instruments like pianos!
I also told my son to pack what he would need to be able to work at home for an extended time, just in case. I cancelled his train ticket back to Berklee at the end of break, as it was unlikely with the mandatory 2-week self-quarantine (however that would work!) that he’d be going back on that date. But so far I haven’t cancelled his ticket home, because I wanted to see if they would take further steps.
I may be wrong on what the update will be, but I think it’s a pretty good guess!
I’ve seen some people on other threads complaining that they shouldn’t have to pay for housing through the end of the semester if in-person classes end. That would be nice, but I wouldn’t hold my breath, and THAT (as opposed to a large tuition payment to a summer program that may or may not happen!) is something I can live with, as it’s really for the common good. I think (no one actually seems to know much so far about what will really work for the “common good”).
I would like to know eventually if we can get a portion of my son’s “unlimited meal plan” credit back to feed him at home. We paid about $3700 / semester (4-months). No credit on dorm fee is very understandable.
We have piano at home which no one except him touches. 100% his piano, 100% his germ. He can take online keyboard classes for sure.
Credit for the meal plans seems reasonable, certainly.
Fortunately we also have a good keyboard at home that no one else plays (except sometimes me, for a few minutes, when no one is around to hear how little I know about playing piano!). And my goodness, do we have guitars–enough that I’ve thought they should pay rent!
Actually, I’m reading on another thread here that the schools that have already announced that they will be finishing the semester online ARE giving prorated refunds for housing and meals. That helps (if everyone does it)!
AsMother—-I didn’t contact my son’s school but the school sent out an email today:
Dining and housing will be credited on a pro-rated basis for the period of time students are not on-campus.
His school isn’t sure yet if online / remote classes will be until April 12th or end of this semester. But we can expect some credits.