Mitigation, as conducted by some NE colleges, is not risk free. More died by suicide than by covid in the Ivy League, and probably elsewhere. Mental health matters.
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And that kind of death toll is fine becauseâŠ? (I live in a state with a relatively high highway death toll, and I no longer go to memorials for people who died in vehicle accidents, because there are only so many tearful âwhy did this tragedy happen to usâ eulogies I can sit through without saying âbecause she did something well-known to be dangerous, something you facilitated and pretended was fine, and it was a bad day for Russian roulette, and now you donât have a sister and you donât have a daughter and he doesnât have a mom. Next time donât do that.â)
Someone above posted misinfo about omicron not getting into lungs. Omicron gets into lungs and does nicely in lung cells. The UK paper cited says itâs badass enough to rip through upper resp cells, possibly burning itself out by killing those cells fast enough that someone with a strong immune response will fight off what does travel before it happens in high enough concentration to make the person bad sick. If you want to roll the dice on the strength of your immune response, be my guest, but donât roll 'em for other people.
At this point though I have to ask the âsuit up and go back in, come what mayâ people: youâre really really intense about this. What do you fear is going to happen if we wind up, for the foreseeable future, in a world where youâre in and out, remote and at work/school, and virus is like the weather, where sometimes there are storms and heat waves and the like, and you shift modes depending on the viral weather? (Or the weather weather, given the increasingly severe weather we seem to have given ourselves?)
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Totally!
Not arguing your point - just asking for my own wisdom: Can you please post those Ivy League figures, and their source?
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really? What does your student think? These NE LACs are sad places to be. The toll of all of these rules has really affected these students in a bad way. What a pall hangs over these campuses. Some parents like all of the rules but they donât live there.
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I donât think my son would describe his fall semester as sad at all!
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Bowdoin has its first suicide in a long time this fall. The admin granted the students a week off for Thanksgiving instead of four days because the student government basically begged for a longer break saying the stress of restrictions and Covid in general was too much right now. Add on this tragedy on such a small campus and they needed the longer break. Bowdoin agreed. These kids need each other during this crazy time. They donât need to be separated and masked beyond class time.
Williams was a fun place to be this fall?
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Iâm sorry to hear that your childâs one NE LAC was not living up to their expectations.
My daughter attends Barnard in NYC, with mandated weekly testing from the reopening in 2020 - and she has not experienced it as a âsad placeâ at all.
In fact, she every much had enjoyed going back the last 3 semesters - even if the occasional weeks of âtake-away diningâ were an annoyance, and she sometimes had to adapt because a professor took a class remote.
She continues to enjoy living in the city, having access to University libraries and other college resources and work spaces, meeting with friends in their apartments/dorms, having to take the subway to a different University for her in-person internship - while always being responsible with personal precautions and mask-wearing.
Sheâs dealt with Covid challenges like an adult that she is - similar to how I had to cope with challenging times, even existential worries, when/where I grew up.
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Iâm not trying to be difficult or challenging. But I respectfully disagree with your sentiment about NE LACs being sad places to be.
My son played intramural soccer, pick up basketball, ate in the dining hall with friends, socialized in dorms - unmasked - with other students. Went to religious services and enjoyed dinner with large groups after. Participated in outdoor club trips. Went to student plays and other performances. Studied in the library.
And I fully recognize that there is a significant mental health crisis.
I just donât see masking as âseparatingâ students. If masking kept them on campus, the masks actually didnât separate them.
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Yes. Williams was not on lock down. Lots of studying, socializing and extracurricular activities. Not like a large Big 10 campus, but I can hardly imagine it ever was. Being a good member of the community is a big thing at Williams. How can you model that if you wonât put on a mask to keep people safe?
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Ok so going to college in NY means having the city as your social outlet. At more rural LACs, social life is dependent on dorm parties and events planned by the college. If the college isnât allowing those things, itâs pretty hard. Bowdoin tried very hard. Let up on the mask mandate quite a bit even. Parties were had towards the end of fall semester. Kids ate in the dining hall (which is a big social thing to do) but the pandemic still hung over them with all of the testing and the possibility of being whisked off to isolation for ten days since they were PCR tested twice a week. They are planning on moving to pool testing 1/24 and I hope they stick with that plan. Williamsâ rules freak me out that the other NESCACs will follow suit and revert back to last year.
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So why are they starting spring like this? Are neither of you worried it will stay this way?
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I would assume the 12,000 daily cases in MA. No I think cases will come down pretty quickly.
My daughter, and I, are convinced that itâs perfectly necessary to let the holiday after-affects settle down. We saw that in September when everyone returned to campus. It does take a few weeks to isolate those who brought infections to campus and stabilize numbers on a low level.
Also, she sees mask-wearing as an absolute non-issue, and certainly doesnât mind a weekly testing regime.
If anything, she found it very reassuring when after any close-contact she was able to get a test that day and an âall clearâ the next by Barnardâs dedicated lab. More so, her room-mates had agreed to home-tests before moving in to avoid spoiling it for the rest, and staggered their move-in days to eliminate cross-contacts of families.
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But they arenât serious cases. It is different now. If one tests positive, isolate in your room. Donât go to class. Like you would do if you had strep or the flu. Why would kids be restricted from socializing and dining in now?
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I do hope many colleges adopt the CDC isolation rules and let students who are symptom (fever) free/symptom resolving out of isolation after 5 days. At the schools where there is no option for remote classes, missing 10 days can put one far behind, academically speaking.
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Iâm not worried.
I am confident that the college will continue to make decisions in the best interests of the students and community.
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Fingers crossed. I guess you just have to agree with their version of what keeps the community âsafeâ. I donât know what we are keeping it safe from anymore with required boosters.
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Dartmouth College, with an undergrad population of approximately 4,000 students, had not one, not two, but THREE first-year student suicides last year. Very hard to believe this is not a result of isolation, as all three of the students who ended their lives were first years (no other students did) and this number is so much greater than in other years.
This ^^^^^^^^
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Is your child a freshman? If so, thatâs very different than students who are starting SEMESTER 4 of Covid rules after being vaxxed, boosted, and in many cases getting covid. Last semester was the best of the covid cycle.
Also, the rules donât match the rules in normal life.
Also, I just saw a new variant pop up in France that could be âconcerningâ. Once they are triple vaxxed and the infection fatality rate is equal to flu, when do the colleges stop?
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