Colleges in the 2021-2022 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 2)

Parents Forum
5461

One thing that I find really intriguing about this is the number of people who have mentioned “winter terms” or “jan plan” or “January session”.
I didn’t realize any place still had those. The school my dad taught at had those and he was able to teach some great electives, do mini-sabatical research travel that increased his ability to get grants and employ research assistants, and I got to travel to Japan when the class taking a trip during the january term was short on participants. But it was cut not too long after that.
Hubby’s school was on trimesters, then tried a January term, then scrapped the whole thing before it really got off the ground.
Part of the issue with it was that it wasn’t an official part of the standard year and a lot of students opted out.

As we look to a future where we may see waves of variants spiking after the winter holidays, I wonder if there might be a place for a return of the January term, with a smaller, more manageable, number of students returning to campus for January, and the rest showing up for February.
Anyone think this is likely?

Or even just more schools moving to the Harvard plan of starting in LATE January? I do have to say, it’s been really nice having our summer intern at a school with a generous winter break. I’m not sure how we would have managed juggling everything while co-workers were out with Covid if he hadn’t returned to work for us between semesters.

1 Like
5462

Stanford has built and continues to build new student housing both on and off campus. If any university in the US can accomodate moving students, whether testing positive or negative, to open or alternative housing without a problem, I’m fairly sure Stanford can.

Their real estate group is the 800lb gorilla in these parts.

5463

They were suggesting healthy Stanford students use common spaces such as lounges, find friends rooms, and investigate local hotel options, per the SF Chronicle

5464

Grad students will start the 3rd week in person as scheduled. Also, lab classes and other ones that need to be in person will be in person the 3rd week too, for both graduate and undergraduate students.

5465

Even though the symptoms for many college kids are sometimes flu-like, it is not the flu and it isn’t like the previous variants either. As you’ve repeatedly written, it is much more contagious, and it is more proficient at bypassing even those who have been double vaxxed. Boosters are pretty effective at preventing symptomatic cases, but many colleges do not have a booster requirements, and those enacting booster requirements seem to be giving students, faculty and staff until mid to late January to get the booster. And the booster doesn’t become effective until one to two weeks later.

So, until the end of January when this wave (hopefully) burns itself out and boosters become effective, we are looking at a situation where Omicron is very likely going to tear through these campuses, infecting not just students but faculty and staff as well. I think you’ve repeatedly written as much.

And if that is the case, then we aren’t talking about an occasional professor and a student or two getting sick here and there, we are talking about a significant portion of the students, faculty and staff getting sick all at the same time. That’s what is happening right now outside of campuses, which is why hospitals are filling up even with the absence of the most severe cases.

Because of all this, I don’t the schools actions are about virtue signaling or even a futile attempt to to stop covid. Rather colleges are trying to get through the next few weeks. And your “its just the flu” model is not designed to effectively deal with something this contagious.
Professors will either be teaching to half empty classrooms, sick themselves, or both. Preemptively going on line for a few weeks is not virtue signaling, it is trying to anticipate a seemingly inevitable situation.

Given you think everyone is going to get this all at once and it will pass quickly, why not cut to the chase and just go online for a few weeks? Are these professors’ lives worth so little that they need to keep teaching to a room full of sick kids at the risk of becoming “too sick to teach?”

I don’t follow what every school in the south is doing, but I did see that a number of colleges in
Texas including UT Austin and some other UTs have announced they are going online for a few weeks, and others have pushed back the start date.

Haven’t you written that these students deserve the college experience they signed up for? I doubt they signed up for having to crash on someone’s floor or having to get a hotel room.

5 Likes
5466

How about buy an RV and park on El Camino Real with the other folks doing the same?

BTW, hotels around here ain’t cheap. And they’re not cheap in SLO, where my D is a freshman, the quarter has begun and classes are in-person, except for the really large ones.

5467

No, many students and faculty will test positive, but few will be very sick-see the Purdue covid numbers in the prior posts. Many will be asymptomatic and most of the others will have mild symptoms, particularly if boosted. There will be a handful of exceptions on campuses for current cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, and those over 75, who may actually be hospitalized ( but again, unlikely to die, thankfully).
No idea what your post is meant to convey. Yes, I am certain the Stanford kids are disappointed in their experience thus far, obviously. And since most are likely asymptomatic, they rightly wonder why all this chaos is needed.
You can read the newspaper article I cited as well.

8 Likes
5468

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/After-700-people-test-positive-for-COVID-16758821.php

5469

Only unvaccinated quarantine if they are close contacts.

3 Likes
5470

People are still being told to quarantine after exposure, aren’t they? Or is that only certain states?

Any student/faculty/staff who tests positive, or who is a close contact of someone who does, will need to stay home for a week, longer for many of those who end up symptomatic. That’s potentially a whole lot of people unable to perform their in-person roles and schools are trying to plan ahead to be prepared for that.
It’s better for professors to make a plan today to be teaching online next week than for them to wake up Monday morning not feeling 100% and take a test that tells them they won’t be going in to class.
It’s better for all students to get off to a slightly rocky start together with remote classes for a week or two than for a quarter of them to miss key information about how the course is going to work or foundational content and be at a disadvantage the rest of the semester - or have the professor spend all of weeks 3 & 4 trying to catch up everyone who missed weeks 1 & 2.
And if food service is going to be short staffed, then it’s better to have all hands on deck preparing food and not worrying about cleaning the dining area between meals, so that everyone gets fed!

3 Likes
5471

I thought when the CDC switched to the 5-day quarantine recommendations, they dropped the clause about vaccinated being exempt. Did that not get adopted?

5472

Doubtful. According to Cal Poly SLO’s dashboard, from Monday 1/3 (1st day of class) through Thursday 1/6, 62.5% of 814 Covid cases are symptomatic.

Edited to add: And the symptomatic % has increased each day.

6 Likes
5473

I mean…you can believe it’s about you if you want, but 30 years in and out of academia says to me that you’re not who they’re worried about. If you’re not sure about that, consider how well universities roll along despite the fact that some small number of kids die at college every year. Booze, freezing to death outside a locked door, meningitis, suicide, murder, accidents…they’ve got counsel on staff for a reason, but it’s not because of these rare occurrences. They get sued far more often by employees and contractors, everything from sexual assault to tenure fails to workplace hazards to all the usual HR messes and contract disputes.

They’re not worried about bad publicity, either. People still apply to Virginia Tech and CMU, and the spox defenses are at the ready about students getting sick from being on campus.

5474

Those Purdue Covid numbers (from surveillance testing) indicate that only 25% of the students who tested positive were asymptomatic, and only 14% of employees were asymptomatic. So if these numbers are our guide then the vast majority of those who get covid will be symptomatic, especially among employees which included faculty and staff.

75% at Purdue are symptomatic. And mild or not, they still can’t go to class, work, or teach while they are symptomatic. Or are you suggesting that symptomatic kids go to class, symptomatic staff go to work, and symptomatic professors teach? If so, this would fly in the face of pretty much all sound medical advice.

Also, they aren’t all boosted. Some are required to boosted by the middle or the end of January, but the booster won’t be fully effective until a week or two after the shot.

4 Likes
5475

The Purdue chart said less than 1% of students had symptoms that were severe or substantial, less than 2% had moderate symptoms. 54% described their symptoms as “very mild”. Moreover, only 88% of Purdue students were vaxxed, and it appears clear that vaxxing reduces symptoms. Stanford doesn’t does not disclose symptoms on their dashboard, and aggregates undergrad and grad students.

More to the point, on any given day, a significant number of asymptomatic people will be on any campus ( and also, in any surrounding town, stores, faculty meetings, etc). Some may be caught by surveillance testing, some may not due to testing too early/late or not testing at all. Mitigation measures appear to have some but little effect on this degree of contagion-classes were remote and that still didn’t help much at Stanford. So we can lockdown everything ( not just campuses) again or accept that contagion is inevitable.

4 Likes
5476

So? This latest temporary move online isn’t really about severity, at least not with regard to the students. The move is about allowing the colleges to function as colleges. Surely we all agree that:

  • Professors with mild symptoms can’t teach in-person.
  • Students with mild symptoms cannot attend classes in person.
  • Staff with mild symptoms cannot go to work.

So if a substantial portion of students and professors have even mild symptoms, then normal classes cannot happen in-person. Or if they do happen in person, then all the students with even mild symptoms cannot attend.

It isn’t about severity as compared to delta, it is about the huge number of people that are going to get at least mildly sick.

How do you know this? If they had all been there attending classes together, what do you suppose the totals would have been?

2 Likes
5477

OK, so we’re relying on 18-22 year olds to tell the truth?

https://www.cns.umass.edu/news-events/news/truth-about-lying-during-covid-19-pandemic

I hope folks don’t put too much stock in those %'s of “asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe.” I’m willing to bet that they’re understated.

3 Likes
5478

UMD announced it’s policy for spring semester.

"We plan to begin the spring 2022 semester as planned and in-person on Jan. 24 with the following requirements: go.umd.edu/qTo. As it has been from the beginning, our decision-making is guided by careful monitoring of the pandemic and by campus and local health officials.

All faculty, staff and students must:
· Get a booster by Jan. 24 or within 14 days of becoming eligible
· Be tested by a rapid antigen test no more than 48 hours before coming to campus on Jan. 24
· Sign the I AM #4Maryland pledge to abide by all health protocols

Masks continue to be required indoors. KN95s are required in classrooms and recommended everywhere.

As we learn more, our plans are subject to change based on the latest public health info and guidance. Thank you to all our Terps for remaining diligent in the fight against COVID-19."

The reality is we’re almost all getting exposed to Omicron no matter if we are in college or not. The majority of us that are vaccinated and boosted, which includes most here and at colleges, will have minor symptoms for a few days. Yes, it’s going to be disruptive on a short term basis, similar to the flu or a nasty stomach virus moving through a population. We will mostly have to deal with the disruption personally for a week or so and move on. I’m glad to see some colleges realize that there’s no avoiding it. Going remote actually doesn’t stop the virus. It’s everywhere right now. Hopefully many boosted individuals (we’re all getting exposed eventually) will get exposed over winter break and thus lessen their personal disruption during the coming semester. We’re not hiding from this extremely contagious variant. Get boosted and wear a quality mask.

7 Likes
5479

This. I don’t understand why it’s the “healthy roomie” who is forced to move.

4 Likes
5480

This is what I’m wondering. Would (many of) the posters here just want NO covid precautions at all? Just let it move through all the groups at a sleepaway school? If a certain percentage of staff and faculty are vaccinated, no restrictions at all? I really think this is what some of you want.

In k-12 schools, CDC recommendations are an ala carte menu, for systems to pick and choose from what they would like to follow (under the guise of what is “practicable” or “feasible.”) For instance, my system refuses “test to stay,” got rid of high school quarantine, and has now “temporarily suspended” contact tracing. Masking remains (for now), but it is inconsistent. Entire districts will NOT be closed, only schools.

Right now, my district is experiencing staff shortages (as are so many districts everywhere). I think we’ve come full circle. Pre-pandemic, a big issue was kids not knowing how to socially interact, their socialization increasingly coming from their devices (text messaging, for example). Then was the big outcry that kids were starving from the lack of socialization during virtual schooling. So back to school they went, and virtual is much, much less now. So with the staff shortages due to covid, in my district, multiple classes are being babysat in auditoriums, cafeterias by any staff member they can corral. The kids have busy work. And what does that mean? They are playing on their phones again! We’ve come full circle.

The emphasis during this pandemic has increasingly shifted away from what it actually is – a public health pandemic of a (more and more!) highly infectious disease.

2 Likes