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

UNC is offering the J&J to students starting March 31st. https://carolinatogether.unc.edu/covid-19-vaccine/ and UNC Prepares To Vaccinate Students On Campus Starting Next Week - Chapelboro.com

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Vanderbilt announced last week that they will return to in-person classes in the fall and will have their usually scheduled fall break.

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UChicago notified the university community today that they are planning to return to normal in the fall (conditioned on the expected caveats). I feel they wouldnā€™t have made that announcement unless they believed the probability to resume a normal academic year was quite high. For the College this means full occupancy of res halls, in-person dining, ā€œgreat majorityā€ of class and lab instruction in-person, resumption of study abroad and in-person career advising and programming, while retaining the virtual advising and recruiting option as a best practice to be utilized by students and recruiters.

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Shelter in place at Pitt starting 9pm tonight. Interesting that they had already planned to do this starting April 16 in order to try and protect graduation.

Yes, apparently there were lots of St. Patrickā€™s day parties and COVID has picked up substantially since. Last report (yesterday) was 67 students in isolation.

Got up early as I read CVS open their appts at 0600 EST. Was able to snag a appt tomorrow for 17 y/o. :partying_face: :partying_face:

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Announced today - Notre Dame will require all returning students in 2021-2022 to be fully vaccinated. They will be hosting a mass vaccination event this month.

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Sighā€¦ My S19 is one of those that wants to wait and see with the vaccines and make sure that there are no issues that come out later . So far his school is not requiring for the fall, but I see the writing on the wall. I know that medical/religious reasons will be exempt, but I doubt Autism counts :(. (his brain gets stuck on ideas). I am not pushing him now, as his school is not even vaccinating now (no resources), but its going to be a long summer. (please note that the rest of us are fully vaccinated).

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Does he go to a public or private school? Iā€™m not sure the rules around public schools but I suspect most privates will require it (with the normal exemptions).

private, but even public schools seem to requiring for fall. Which I personally think is pre-mature. What if by summer we find out we need boosters. Will they require those too? and those who have not been vaccinated, will they get a better one? i gladly took mine ASAP, but I think schools already requiring is a bit quick to do so. To say, we likely will require is better wording.

AS a parent, who is paying for said school, and we have 2+ years invested in it, for them to tell my kid , sorry you can no longer go here without a vaccine irks me. I will talk my son into getting it, but he could push back and say, fine, I will just drop out of school, if he really wanted to. The incoming Freshman at least know where
its required, and we did have a flu shot requirement to be campus in the spring, which my son did, but at least there was a virtual option as well. That is the thing, the schools will have to continue to offer a virtual option or risk kids who dont get vaccinated from having to take a LOA or drop out, or transfer.

This is not a reply about the vaccine itself (like I said the rest of us are vaccinated and want him to be), but rather about what will happen with all these schools requiring it, and how some students may not want to comply, as they have a wait and see attitude.

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Well, things change and schools have new requirements. Schools didnā€™t require the meningitis vaccines, then they were developed and approved, and then they were required (especially to live in the dorms). If you happened to apply before they were required, but attended when they were, you had to decide whether to go to that school or not.

My daughter is very reluctant to getting the vaccine. Sheā€™ll get it if required to do something she wants to do, like travel.

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I feel for you with your son as I have a nephew with autism who is brilliant in many ways, but not a flexible thinker. Has your son had other vaccines, numbing shots at the dentist, or taken medications? Maybe he could think of the vaccine in terms of those kinds of things, rather than as the big deal it is right now in our culture. In fact, it may be easier to overcome hesitancy when the fuss dies down.

I do think the colleges need to consider the overall health and economic viability of their institution. If they donā€™t do their best to keep their campus and the surrounding community safe, there will be many negative consequences.

Now that we have an effective vaccine, Iā€™m sure colleges would love to stop spending incredible amounts of time and money on Covid testing, tracing, quarantine dorms, take out food, cleaning, tents, virtual technology/training, etc. Plus, their consumers are feeling aggrieved while the campus experience is so far from what they paid for.

Also, autism may count for an exception. In NY, people on the spectrum had early access to the vaccine when it opened for those with high-risk medical conditions.

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Thatā€™s something I hadnā€™t thought about. It will be interesting to see how schools handle this. My Dā€™s school is all in person next year. No remote option. And Iā€™d be shocked if they donā€™t require the vaccines.

Amherst College announced yesterday that, barring any unforeseen developments, they intend to have all classes in-person next year, with no remote option. President Carolyn ā€œBiddyā€ Martin said they have not yet decided whether to require vaccines (with medical and religious exemptions, of course). But, given how many colleges have decided to require vaccines, I would be quite surprised if they decided not to require them.

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Harvey Mudd just announced that they will require COVID-19 vaccines for students living on campus or in off-campus apartments for the fall 2021 semester. There will be exceptions made for students with medical or religious reservations.

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Michigan is taking senior graduation pictures for this and last yearā€™s class in the "Big House this week and next. My son just sent us his pictures and they should do this every year. Very fun.

They will allow senior graduates in the Big House for graduation but only to view the virtual on the large screens so itā€™s something I guess. Fall will be 80% capacity and only really the really large lectures and some others will be remote. Mix of hybrid and live. Seems to get will back to somewhat normal. Students are getting off site vaccines now, so that is a positive. They want students to be vaccinated but not sure how stringent they will beā€¦ I am sure over the summer they will rephrase what they expect on campus. Now Michigan just needs to get their act together. :wink:

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Iā€™ve been worrying about what in-class will look like in the fall and was driving myself crazy. My S21 made his commitment and I have to just hope for the best. For freshmen at any large university, the all really get screwed. The core classes for majors, required math/reading, GenEd classes and all the intro type classes are ALL large lectures and will have to go all/part virtual or the college will have to find a way to break them up. Right now when I look at the schoolā€™s course registration page, it only looks like two might be all live :sleepy:

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All or most will breakdown to 25 kids with a TA at some point. But those will most likely give the student a chance to be hybrid. Sometimes being in sweats chilling outside is better :sunglasses:.

Michigan tends to have lots of smaller classā€™s anyway. Even in classā€™s you assume that will be larger. Andā€¦ It will be what it will be. The other student experiences will be hugely improvedā€¦ We all hopeā€¦ Even the students this year that I talked with felt that it was worth it being on campus and letā€™s face it. This year was less then optimal.

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Sorry, I was responding in general to the topic not to Michigan. He committed to Temple University. Probably the same deal trying to break it down into smaller sections. The campus looked nice as a place to stay and have an experience even if some/most classes are virtual.

Per Duke today:

We plan to require all new and returning Duke students to present proof of vaccination to Student Health before they can enroll for the Fall 2021 semester. This policy will cover all undergraduate, graduate, and professional studentsā€”in all degree programsā€”who intend to be on the Duke campus for any period of time starting with the Fall 2021 semester. Documented medical and religious exemptions will be accommodated.

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