Here is the latest news from Williams:
College embarks on fully in-person semester, but not without hiccups – The Williams Record
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Nice summary of where we are with the vaccines and breakthrough case symptoms etc…along the lines of what we were discussing upthread with realistic expectations for colleges.
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Seems like that would not require a dedicated major, but can be done with any course work combination of sufficient science plus writing and communication of science to non-scientists. However, it would not be out of the question for a college to offer a dedicated major as an easy-to-follow framework for a student who wants to go in that direction, rather than try to piece that together with some other major.
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OT, but there are reasons why it doesn’t happen. PM if you’re interested.
Studying statistics, and the science of proper research trials, would be really important. We have all kinds of untrained people interpreting scientific studies—not ideal.
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Latest update from Pitt:
Vaccination rates on the Pittsburgh campus
- Faculty: 82%
- Staff: 84%
- Graduate students: 93%
- Undergraduate students: 93%
- On-campus undergraduate students: 97%
- Off-campus undergraduate students: 90%
Note that Pitt does not require vaccination but you must be tested weekly if you are not vaccinated. I think they shut off access to university buildings if you don’t get tested, judging from one very panicky post from a parent in my Facebook group.
They have had 44 student positive cases in the past week, 15 among faculty and staff.
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From a Reddit post. I hope all schools are conveying this message and safety tips. I hadn’t really thought about how hospitals being full of Covid patients could negatively impact care for college students with alcohol poisoning.
Social Outings are marathons NOT races!
As university staff, I work with college students everyday to help support them in their interpersonal development and safety in my role. Part of my duties is to also hold conduct meetings with students who have violated policy. The amount of cases we have had come through this year compared to years past is bewildering to say the least. Tons more binge drinking, many more alcohol transports to the hospital, and vomit everywhere. This may sound funny, but when you have to call a parent and explain that their child is in the hospital due to alcohol poisoning, it loses all sense of humor.
Look. I know the last year everyone has been cooped up. We all are trying to reclaim lost experiences. However, you need to pace yourselves. Drink to your limit. Drink only with friends. Do NOT take open drinks from others. Have transportation home planned out before going out. Simple tips you surely have heard before, but I promise you this is not just for your own health. This is for the wellbeing of the community, staff, and EMS. Our local hospital is almost entirely full with COVID patients, and trying to find spaces for students who have severe alcohol poisoning or have been slipped a drug that they did not intend to take, is extremely difficult. Your choices have far ranging consequences friends. Be very thoughtful with them!
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UChicago’s current vax numbers are 87% of employees and 94% of students. They just tightened the requirement for employees; previously they were allowing those who didn’t vax to test weekly. Now (barring approved religious or medical exemption), all employees must be fully vaxed by 10/15 or face disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
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apparently numbers at colleges are going down. I would suspect with most colleges having a highly vaxxed population, Delta eventually found no place to go? Here in GA , no Vax mandate at any of the schools, but its going down
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Here is the latest from Williams, interesting article about the logistical difficulties of managing the return of all students to campus:
Three weeks after Virginia Tech made national news for their jam packed Enter Sandman crowd hype opening to their first football game, their 7 day positive Covid rate is 1%.
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Great news on VT keeping the positivity rate at 1 percent, just saw this article about NESCAC schools COVID responses:
In Other Ivory Towers: Other colleges face outbreaks, stricter COVID rules – The Williams Record
VT’s stadium is outdoors, so while a COVID-19-contagious person can be a significant risk to someone directly in front of them or next to them, they are probably not the risk to as many others that they would be in an indoor space where their virus would recirculate to distant corners of the room.
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I get that a lot of schools are experiencing labor shortages and supply chain issues which have negatively impacted dining services. But a shorter of forks in the dining hall? Come on- just buy some more utensils!!
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Are they testing all students and faculty or just the unvaccinated? How many tests were actually done?
For example, SDSU prides itself on having only a few dozen CV19 cases and yet they are only doing 800 tests (it’s voluntary) a week. They have something like 35,000 students!
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ok but really? Is Virginia Tech testing everyone? Are students going to get tests if they have symptoms?
I’d say these big football schools are operating much the same as last year. They’re kinda testing but they’re not getting all worked up about cases on campus. Just a different risk tolerance. I also haven’t read about a big surge in cases in the areas surrounding these schools.
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Virginia Tech is testing symptomatic kids. According to the dashboard, the health center has administered 2,347 tests in the past 7 days with 23 testing positive (21 students, 2 employees). According to the VT parent pages, kids are going to various other urgent care type places to get tested since the health center is so backed up for appointments. It sounds like there are a lot of sick kids who are testing negative for covid but positive for strep, have sinus infections, etc.
Unlike most, if not all, of the other NESCAC schools, Middlebury isn’t regularly testing all students, faculty, and staff. It’s time to stop pretending and start testing - The Middlebury Campus
Hahahahaha oh my head is exploding – I’m here reading about surveillance testing at all these schools made for kids with brains and/or money, places that require vaccination and masks, and here I am with my kid at no-vax/no-mask Red State U. doing her lonely Binax testing twice-weekly in the dorm. I submit the receipt for the test kits to HR for FSA reimbursement, and get an annoyed/confused denial response – somehow they decide that 16 x 2 = 44, then can’t for the life of them figure out why my kid would need 44 tests when this is supposed to be used only if you’re symptomatic.
There’s a Lily Allen song that comes to mind.