Add University of Alabama to indoor mask mandate
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Add UPenn to indoor mask mandate. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/announcements/message-penn-community-about-campus-readiness-fall-semester
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Pitt announcement today:
Indoors: Regardless of your vaccination status, face coverings are required when indoors, unless you are in your enclosed private office or dwelling.
Outdoors: Individuals who are not fully vaccinated, as well as those who are or live with someone who is immunocompromised, should wear face coverings when outdoors and unable to maintain physical distancing. Additionally, anyone is welcome to wear a face covering outdoors based on their own comfort level.
Hereâs the picture weâre getting so far:
- single rooms turned into doubles, doubles turned into triples (the number of juniors going overseas this year dropped by ~97%)
- freshmen guidance will be done by sophomores who never set their foot on campus and seem to need cicerones themselves
- housing assignments came 2 days(!) before the athletesâ move-in day
- decisions that would be so helpful (like a firm schedule for parent weekend that the college organizes in October so airline tickets can be booked) are postponed forever.
I wouldnât call any of these a reason to panic and second-guess the great institution - but put together, they create a jigsaw puzzle that doesnât look reassuring, especially considering the money involved. Or am I overreacting? What do you, parents of kids admitted to dream schools, see at the moment?
Thatâs pretty great. Thereâve been efforts here, and they do have some tt support, but itâs tough because theyâre not anyoneâs priority, and their position on the periphery makes it hard for them to build relationships, see some of the structures that hold the place up, and propose things that admin and tt wonât just say no to. Their timescaleâs different, too â for tenured people 3-5 years is a reasonable time horizon for moderately speedy action, and for contingent faculty who have no idea if theyâve even got a job in a semester or two, and canât just chill and collect salary while having meeting after meeting, this doesnât mean much. Fingers crossed for the contingent fac at your Dâs school.
So sorry about all of that! I hope things get better. Weâve got firm schedules for fall from Colgate and Bowdoin and fall looking as normal as possible so far. There is overcrowding at both schools but both chose to affect the older students and not too many of the freshmen.
Dartmouth just reinstated their indoor mask mandate, too. Dartmouth imposes indoor mask mandate - VTDigger
âŠand UVM. They will also be testing a symptomatic students and staff. University of Vermont mandates indoor masking - VTDigger
Penn is also requiring all students returning to campus to undergo gateway testing regardless of vaccination status. Students testing positive must quarantine for ten days and cooperate with contact tracing efforts.
Meanwhile, D is anxiously awaiting more information on what dorm life will be like this year (i.e. will guests have to meet certain requirements? Can there be socialization with off-campus students?). Weâre two weeks out from move-in and there are still a lot of unknowns.
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Good luck to your Penn D. I have a D who is an incoming doctoral student, but she is already living in Philly in an apartment with her SO, so at least she doesnât have those move in worries.
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Thanks and good luck to your D as well! Mine is a rising junior and is really looking forward to seeing friends and making up for time lost to remote learning.
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Hanover, NH has implemented an indoor mask requirement in response to a âsignificant uptickâ of cases at Dartmouth.
https://www.vnews.com/Hanover-to-adopt-partial-mask-mandate-41812552
Johns Hopkins is requiring indoor masks for everyone except roommates when theyâre in their rooms. Also requiring proof of vaccination prior to arrival. If students are unable to vaccinate in their home locations, the school will vaccinate upon arrival.
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today:
Inpatients: 21
Peds inpatients: 3
Hospital employee positives: 4
My school still pretending that urging teenagers to vax and be careful, in a state full of evangelicals, will do the job. Covid info has vanished from the county website.
Twitter cognoscenti saying that weâre already being used as an overflow hospital.
Some SUNYs are now requiring masks indoors for everyone. So far the SUNY chancellor is leaving that decision up to individual colleges.
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UMN just reversed itself and mandated the vaccine once fully approved by FDA. Faculty who donât get the vax will need to test regularly. I believe most other colleges and universities in the area have already implemented a vax mandate.
Having taken the liberty of looking up where youâre talking aboutâŠ
You have two things working against you here: 1) the interdependencies of consortium schools slow down decision-making and communications, and 2) The County is a behemoth, and their guidance constrains what the colleges can do. I donât think the administrations are indifferent to familiesâ need for proactive decisions and information⊠theyâre just not able to be as agile as weâd like, as conditions evolve.
Have you really been told that there will be forced doubles and triples? I know that all the colleges have secured of-campus apartments and are in the (also laborious) process of dislodging upperclassmen from on-campus spots and into off-campus spots. (Some of the schools refrained from promising specific spots to anyone, but others are having to backpedal on previous assignments.) I thought that all of the on-campus housing was going to be de-densified, but I could be wrong.
I donât doubt that there will be frustrations and missteps. I hope theyâll mostly get it right, though, after more than a year of assembling layers and layers of plans, alternative plans, contingency plans, etc. etc. etcâŠ
Things got somewhat better since the post. The housing assignment was cancelled but then, D was offered a spot in a better hall (with AC and in a so-called âfriendship suite,â i.e. two singles with an inner door between them, Dâs is the walk-through but has the direct walk-in closet and bathroom access) so we are relatively content. The address for deliveries was revealed a little late for some college-specific stuff like mattress tops but generally, their seem to find their footing. The decision not to let parents watch in person while The Precious Ones go through the Ffamous Gate hurts a lot, judging from the FB page (streaming will be provided but itâs not the same), just like the firm position to to let parents entering residential halls at all. But her, itâll be alright!
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AC is a score!! Thatâs one of the few things in which your particular campus lags behind the others⊠and thereâs always at least one heat wave before summer breathes its last. âFriendship suiteâ sounds great! Hopefully there will be good streaming coverage of the Gate moment, with better footage than you couldâve gotten yourself. Not the same, but still beats the heck out of Zoom U. Fingers crossed that everything stays on track!!
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URichmond reported today that:
94% of students reported their vaccine status, and of those, 92.6% are fully vaxxed
98% of faculty/staff reported, and of those, 91.4% are fully vexed
I think those are pretty good numbers and Iâm a bit reassured. And some % of those non-reported or non-vaxxed must be international who will get the vaccine upon arrival.
The school is adding some masking back in, but seems extremely limited (events > 250, dining hall except when seated, health care facilities, public transport).
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