It’s how they have always done it. Semester just finishes earlier , longer summer break, options for optional May-mester, etc etc. December exams finished before some schools too, so still plenty of time off.
Some of the “theater” and “window dressing” may be seen as necessary to show that the college “did all they could reasonably do” in court. Each student, faculty, or staff is seen as a potential lawsuit to defend.
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This is one time you can’t blame the lawyers. No such suit against an employer/ college has succeeded, and frankly, would not. Given the widespread transmission, it is impossible to prove an employee became infected at work. Much of this theater is just virtue-signaling by schools eager to show they care.
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It could be argued that pandemics are considered a “Force Majure” event and therefore exempt from liability.
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I also think the rules are sometimes practical in nature? The highly residential colleges where the vast majority of kids live on campus need a plan for how to isolate kids if they are positive and they aren’t renting hotels etc anymore. So, one, they need to test to see who is positive and, two, they’d like to try at least to keep those numbers from exploding since they are responsible for having isolation space. Bates now saying kids can isolate in their rooms and negative roommates might need to find somewhere else to sleep for five days like a friend’s floor.
It does feel like theater and window dressing if sports are continuing (which they currently are), and with no masks (at least at the schools that have addressed that so far, such as Bates).
So athletes can play and practice unmasked on a squash court, or basketball court, etc, for several hours each day, while all students have remote classes, club meetings, rush, and grab and go meals, etc.
Both my kids are college athletes, so I support sports continuing, but I sure do understand parents saying this is not a good look…it really doesn’t make much sense from a mitigation of spread viewpoint when we are talking Omicron with a R0 in the teens, especially at smaller schools where athletes are a relatively larger proportion of the student body.
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This was Oberlin’s policy for the entire first semester, I expect that will continue.
The strictest lockdowns in April 2020 or so in the US were insufficient* to stop the ancestral variant with R0 of around 3. The much more limited “window dressing” / “theater” restrictions mentioned that US colleges are trying now are unlikely to be successful with a variant with R0 of around 10 or so (and probably 5 or higher even in a population fully vaccinated with vaccines against the ancestral variant).
With an R0 around 10 or more, the only realistic way to fight it is with a highly effective vaccine, like with measles. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine targeted to the current variants is necessary. But the COVID-19 virus mutates more than the measles virus, so frequent boosters for variants like the flu vaccine will be necessary. Otherwise, the best we can hope for is that mismatched vaccines (like what we have now) will at least reduce the risk of more serious effects from getting COVID-19 even if they have limited effectiveness at stopping infection.
*They were enough to fight to a draw, bringing R0 to about 1, but a draw is a win for the virus, because humans eventually get lockdown fatigue and give up, unlike the virus.
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If we are heading into an era where a pattern of loosening then tightening dorm restrictions becomes the norm, off-campus living may become the preferred option among students who live away from home for college. Pre-pandemic, a school that guarantees (or requires) four years of housing was seen as attractive by many, but in this era, off-campus housing may offer something closer to the “authentic” college experience.
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Totally get it. I had 2 kids graduate the last 2 years. Neither of their last 1.5 years in college was ideal. But college experiences aren’t always ideal. They could have a bad roommate, don’t get accepted into a fraternity etc. I think adversity is a learning moment… My son’s company that hired him commented on how he continued (very active on campus) and came up with ways to excel through the pandemic instead of using it as an excuse… I, of course want the best college experience for my or your kids. These last few years are challenging but non of my kids friends would do it differently. One at a small lac and one at a Big Ten school. Their experiences were their experiences, not mine when I went to college. I know many students currently at college and no one wants to stop going. I did ask. It’s not a perfect situation but it’s their situation.
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Dorms are common nationwide during the first year since most people don’t know others in the local area yet so that built in community is useful. After that, though, I think that most people go off campus aside from a small minority of colleges.
It depends heavily on what exactly their situation is. I don’t think students are looking for a perfect experience, but nothing wrong with saying that spending their time and money for an inferior product isn’t what they wish to do right now. Those who have lived thru zoom classes and strict lockdowns have a valid perspective as well and can choose how to allocate their resources. D says well over half of her class would gap if zoom and lockdowns reoccur. I don’t think it’s a question of resilience as much as better options.
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I just read Duke’s announcement today:
It states that Duke “anticipate that a large number of students will test positive during campus entry testing next week”, and
I can’t say that Duke’s isolation housing policy is completely logical to me. I mean the kids with pre-existing conditions moving to the dedicated space—at that point, they’ve already caught covid. I suppose if they are saying that the dedicated space is going to be having twice daily nurse visits or something like that, I could see why they would give those spaces to the more vulnerable. But the problem with leaving covid-positive-roommate A in a room with so-far-negative-roommate B is that A will likely give it to B. And B could be a student with pre-existing conditions. So I guess I think if they have students with pre-existing conditions, the smartest thing they might do is to isolate them by giving them singles from the get-go, not wait until they catch it to isolate them. And I don’t see why they wouldnt’ at least TRY to get so-far-negative roommate B out of being in the same room as positive-roommate A, at least until they run out of space. But, I guess no one asked me to micro-manage everything 
. Clearly the schools don’t think they’ll have space to separate everyone, so they are ok with kids giving it to their roommates and just getting it over with!!!
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There’s a story today in the NYT saying that the U.K. has done some research and can already say that omicron is less serious because it does not affect the lungs. S19 had symptoms starting Monday, tested on Wed and positive, practically symptom free today. If that’s omicron, then kids won’t be sick for long. Our D was WAY more sick with the flu earlier this month.
So a lot of kids will test positive. Stay in their rooms for five days and then move on. I was way more worried about D’s roommate getting that awful flu than I would be at this point about D catching Covid.
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They will spread it to the entire floor and then to other floors since this is only keeping classes virtual, not activities. The entire school will be positive quickly.
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Maybe maybe not. My husband, daughter and I were all very close to S for his first two days of symptoms. Long rides in cars, watching movies together, eating meals together. The three of us are still negative. It’s possible that boosted people are somewhat protected even from infection.
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Duke is now doing isolation in your own dorm room too…I think they realize how many positives there will be, but also maybe an unspoken acknowledgement that it is certainly mild in these vaccinated students? Other highly residential schools seem to be moving toward the same plans. Agree with others it will spread very fast and then the college can move on…
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agreed, and I am in the camp that this is going to be endemic so it is what it is as long as you are vaccinated and boosted.
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A plan to infect everyone other than the most vulnerable? But how could the classes start on the 18th, if some students can arrive on the campus as late as the 18th with the school’s encouragement? They may still be infectious when the classes start. Should the vulnerable students continue to take classes remotely after the 18th? Would some/many Duke professors/instructors choose to teach remotely? Something is amiss.