As I understand it, Bowdoin allows these on campus parties with limited alcohol and students have to prove they are 21 to drink. I don’t know if the hosts of the party have to give out wristbands or how it works. They are called sophomore houses but they are just the houses that used to be the frat houses way back when. They have to register any “parties” with the college and something like only beer can be served and only so much total can be served. These parties have not been allowed since everyone was sent home in March 2020.
Any college that has on campus fraternity houses might work like this. Colgate’s frats are also considered on campus and have to ask permission to have get-togethers over a certain number of guests. During Covid, those have also been cancelled until very recently.
I think most colleges with frats have houses that are technically off campus so those frats might have more leeway and can do what they please. Not sure.
Sometimes, colleges drive a hard bargain on the fraternities with respect to rules in exchange for campus recognition as student groups. For example, a rule that alcohol must be served by someone with a liquor license, or that the house be completely dry. Of course, if the college pushes too hard, some fraternities may go completely off campus and forego campus recognition.
Some fraternity national organizations have required their chapters to have dry houses after seeing too much alcohol-related trouble.
I tried to get my son a booster shot in Massachusetts. They are only giving them to the immunocompromised. Here in Washington you can get one as long as you state you are on the CDC recommended list.
I just talked to Walgreen’s in Williamstown. They told me all Walgreen’s are only allowed to booster immunocompromised. On the state website all the stores say immunocompromised only. I was hoping to get him vaccinated over Thanksgiving so he would be boosted for his flight home. Not sure what to think about the discrepancy in information. Thanks!
Oh, I figured it out. I didn’t realize that a booster dose and immunocompromised 3rd dose were different. The stores near Williamstown mostly only carry the immunocompromised dose. Thank you so much for your help!!
Since it sounds like your son got a Moderna series, why doesn’t he get the Pfizer booster? (I deliberately got a Pfizer booster for my Moderna series.)
Purdue sent an email to parents this morning saying they are hoping to relax the indoor mask mandate on 2/1/22. Basically masks only in instructional spaces. They want to have a few weeks to re-establish the “bubble” before loosening restrictions. The email also says they are going to pare back on surveillance testing after February. Of course, all subject to change if rates go up.
The other interesting point was that all students are eligible for the booster and should get one prior to going home for winter break. Shots are being given on campus.
My daughter’s boyfriend is at UTK and supposedly they dropped their on-campus indoor mask requirements over the weekend. I don’t get the impression that it was being strictly enforced anyway.
Simmons still has mask policy and surveillance testing in place, but did relax the campus guest policy to allow visitors in the dorms. Cases remain very low, hoping it stays that way.
I went to a CU basketball game last week. Seemed very ‘normal’ except that masks are required for everyone except the coaches, players, and cheerleaders. The band had to wear masks when they weren’t playing (or those playing non-blowing instruments like drums and guitar). It is a requirement of the city of Boulder to wear masks inside, so not sure what the school’s requirement is for dorms and classrooms.
What was funny was we walked into the arena not knowing about the mask requirement, and no one mentioned it - not the scanner people, the ticket people, those in the alum area where you can buy food before the game. I finally said to my friend “Are we supposed to have masks on?” and we put them on. Then before the game started there were people walking around with signs saying ‘masks required.’
Has the omicron variant changed anything at schools or colleges that you know well?
I am in London at the moment. The prime minister gave a speech last night saying there where 2 confirmed cases in the UK, this morning that went up to 3 cases. I took the tube and only about a third of people where wearing masks and we where stuffed like a sardine can as if it where 2019 so no real sense of urgency .
The news channels I follow say that lateral flow tests do not detect omicron so PCR tests are the only effective ones available but they take longer to get results back.
In relevance to international students, mandatory PCR tests are required by everyone arriving in the UK by day 2.
From what I read, even PCR tests may not be as accurate. Signal from one of the genomes of the Omicron variant apparently can’t be amplified in a PCR test.
The best case scenario would be if this new variant is less dangerous than delta, even if it’s more contagious or the vaccines are less efficient against it. That way we might just be able to more or less ignore it public policy wise and treat it like getting a bad flu.
We probably won’t know for sure until the schools and colleges close for the holidays anyway.
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