Oberlin students isolate in their rooms if they test positive. Roommate can go elsewhere, if they so choose, including the Oberlin hotel (if there is room).
1 Like
Keep in mind that isolation and quarantine are voluntary at a lot of schools, especially less expensive ones.
I donât know how weâre going to do in-person without staff, including instructional staff, willing to come to campus in the midst of an omicron blizzard with no mitigation politically possible. I donât know whoâs going to be willing to walk into a crowded classroom with half the kids masked and no knowing whoâs vaccinated or how much. It doesnât matter for me: Iâve already got dispensation to teach and work fully remote, something that I wouldnât have been able to get in September, but was able to get in November as we bled employees and HR realized they had to drop the in-person hardline. (Students are registering, and my course is not required, so theyâre apparently fine with this.) But itâs going to matter for a lot of other people â unless omicron blazes through incredibly fast, burns out, blocks return of other variants, and thus leaves us with low case numbers, I think this will be where a lot more grossly underpaid, no-job-security people draw the line.
Itâs just very easy to find good work and much better pay elsewhere now, and after waiting two years for a raise that leaves us far behind where we were in '19 (I come out just ahead of where I was fresh out of college in the '80s, inflation-adjusted)after working like crazy to get the place this far during covid, and then being told to come get their dose of omicronâŠI think that if admin tries to sally forth, students will find their non-tenure-track instructors just not turning up for class. I donât think thatâs the right way to handle it, but people wonât want to have the confrontations, and thatâs how theyâll handle it, just ghosting. Or, like last semester, holding out hope till the day school started, hoping admin would come to its senses, and then when given an ultimatum, walking away from students and cherished work in favor of their own health and futures. And leaving department chairs and deans and the skeleton crew of tenured faculty scrambling to cover courses or cancel them. Staff are already missing, with students being told sorry, we donât have anyone available to do _____.
I donât know a single person whoâs left who regrets the decision. Everyone sees much more clearly now what theyâd been sacrificing in order to keep the university going for the students. They gave more than they got, and most of them did it for a long time.
âYou might get sick with this thing weâre still learning about, and which produces long-term symptoms in about half the people who get it, worse as you get older, but you probably wonât dieâ is not a compelling case for âstep into the classroom,â Iâm afraid.
A lot of us whoâre still here have to remind ourselves daily of why weâre working here at all. Daily there are people who canât find a good answer anymore. Weâre now trying to work around the holes theyâve left, picking up as much of their work as we can handle or just working around the fact that itâs not going to be done anymore, again at no extra pay.
Looking after employeesâ health and their familiesâ health is about the last arrow in adminâs quiver here, as far as I can see. Which would mean going remote again for a time, and recognizing that weâll likely be dipping in and out indefinitely, so we may as well figure out how to do it well. I donât see that the university has anything else it can offer at this point to retain the employees who make the place go.
1 Like
Sounds like it might be best for all if those employees left the university if they dislike their employment so much. If necessary that school can alter its curriculum or programs accordingly; it was expected that covid might result in the reduction or closing of some schools. Too many schools exist anyway.
11 Likes
We tested at Walgreens prior to a funeral last week. Walgreens offers the Abbott ID Now test which is a PCR test and while the website says the results come back in 24 hours, we have found it takes about an hour or two.
2 Likes
I hope that timing stays the same through Jan. Iâm a bit worried about trying to find a PCR test and result for D who has to have one three days or less before getting on the plane to go to campus.
2 Likes
My sonâs college has the same requirement (in January as well as last fall). You can schedule a PCR test at CVS online two weeks in advance. According to CVS, results for regular PCR tests will be available in 1-2 days (they also offer antigen tests with results within hours). When I checked last time, tests at Walgreens and Rite Aid canât be scheduled that far in advance.
3 Likes
They say the results are 24 hours so that should work for you. But yes, Iâd be super stressed about being able to find an appointment! I looked yesterday to see what Walgreens around here had available and most were booked through about Monday. But I think they are seeing a big rush right now with people trying to test before Christmas.
We havenât heard what my daughterâs school is going to require. Last we heard was a communication would come out January 4th. With classes supposed to start the 9th thatâs awfully late if they are going to make a lot of changes or require testing. We will test our daughter before she gets on a plane regardless of what is required though.
1 Like
Thx. Super helpful. Iâll keep an eye on CVSâ schedules.
UT Austin will be allowing at home tests such as BinaxNow.
https://t.e2ma.net/message/uvywxf/a8mkviy
1 Like
Yes I wonder if more schools will do that. Bowdoin doing that for winter athletes who are coming back early to train and theyâll even reimburse them!
Especially when most people who remain vulnerable, do so because they have consciously chosen not to take free and readily available measures that would save their lives and keep them from hospitalization. Weâre tasked on a daily basis to continue to be unselfish and care about not infecting them, but they donât care about our healthcare workers and overstressed healthcare system enough to do their part.
I believe my daughterâs university allows isolation in dorms for vaccinated students, which 95%+ students are.
On college campuses where vaccination is mandated (some donât even allow religious exemption), this doesnât really apply. On those campuses, people who are vulnerable are those (or their family members living with them) who are older, or immunocompromised, or have other underlying health conditions.
1 Like
I guess the question is how far will some colleges go to protect those who are vulnerable. Some schools that are testing vaccinated kids cite that as one big reason why. We all know that, left to their own devices, many kids with cold symptoms do not voluntarily get a Covid test and thereâs really no way to police that. The only way to make sure to catch cases is to test everyone. I think the schools doing all of this testing are finally getting to the point, though, where they are ready to switch it up a bit like Bowdoin going to pool testing which is less expensive. Not sure if omicron will affect that. Colleges wonât have a lot of time to make that decision with this spike happening at the same time as spring semester starting. Iâm hoping we see the spike start to recede before D and S go back since, luckily, their schools donât start class until the 25th.
1 Like
But it does - if you support the narrative that vaxed students shouldnât be mixing with their college towns & cities and shouldnât be traveling home without a negative test (or multiple negative tests, just to be sure that enough time has passed for the virus to take hold) - lest they knowingly (or asymptomatically) spread to the âvulnerableâ. And from what Iâve read on here, some of strictest testing & travel mandates have come from small LACâs that have mandated the vax for students & staff.
My response above addressed the broader issue that me29034 raised.
But if you believe the anecdotes about false test results, unless they test everyone, every day (or at least several times a week), thereâs a chance that they miss the window for the virus to have taken hold. Omicron is apparently spreading faster than testing can keep up with - and unless youâre a member of the federal government, good luck finding enough tests to keep with testing millions of people, multiple times a week.
1 Like
Bowdoin tests everyone twice a week. Beginning of the alphabet is Mon/Thurs, end of the alphabet is Tues/Fri. I think they catch most cases with these PCR tests really quickly. I thought Omicron still take three days from contagion so this plan should work. Close contacts take rapids every day for seven days as well as stay on their PCR schedule.
But I know not many schools are doing that and it cannot go on forever.
1 Like
Yes, if the US had plentiful supplies of inexpensive rapid tests that everyone could use before leaving home to any place where they may be in close contact with others, that would have helped control virus spread. Unfortunately, this never happened, so testing is relatively expensive and not frequent enough if the goal is to catch the presymptomatic or asymptomatic contagious people and warn them to avoid close contact with others.
1 Like
Dartmouth indicated students who test positive in January will likely be required to quarantine in their own rooms with their roommates.
1 Like
Will the roommates also have to quarantine? If not, they will likely get it from the infected student and then spread it to others.
Omicron seems to spread so easily that any residential college is unlikely to be able to contain outbreaks when students return after the winter holidays.
2 Likes
And that is how it should be done, on campuses with these 98 or similar % vaccinated! Absolutely agree there is no need, and cdc does not even recommend, this repeated testing of every student on campus. IMO, that was appropriate pre-vaccine and possibly when faculty kids were not eligibleâbut even then, considering masking in classrooms works and symptom-screening works(to prevent spread in classrooms), itâs overkill.
3 Likes