COVID restrictions at Brown University

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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Might I remind members of the forum rules: “Our forum is expected to be a friendly and welcoming place, and one in which members can post without their motives, intelligence, or other personal characteristics being questioned by others."

and

“College Confidential forums exist to discuss college admission and other topics of interest. It is not a place for contentious debate. If you find yourself repeating talking points, it might be time to step away and do something else… If a thread starts to get heated, it might be closed or heavily moderated.”

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/guidelines

Putting thread in slow mode until morning

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22

I hope you’re right that there will be some normalcy ahead. However, right now we have 99% vaccination rate for students and .1% positivity rate (asymptomatic testing), and we are restricted to groups of 5 or less, masks, etc… I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind. I’m suggesting that while searching and deciding for colleges, people should look at past covid response. Regret is tough when you’ve shelled out 150,000 and looking to transfer :sob:

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23

I didn’t’ mean to sound so whiny about the dorms. I brought it up in the context of having to spend a lot more time in my dorm room if friends are going out and I’m unlucky #6. It’s all connected and it’s all related to how I want to live the next years of my life. I get that some people actually prefer the restrictions and that would make Brown a good fit for them.

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I certainly hope that by next year this is not going to be a factor in anyone’s decision.

You have not been on campus for a month yet. Be patient. This is a prudent way to start the school year and most likely the great stats are a result.

Students come onto campus from all over. Once everyone has been there long enough to settle in, the university can ease up.

Looking to transfer seems really premature. Give yourself time to adjust and be patient with Brown: the university is doing really well with COVID. Some schools aren’t. Things will get better soon.

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25

This is true. I don’t know anything about what is going on at Brown, but even within the same region (or city), there can be large differences between individual schools in terms of Covid restrictions and it can have a major impact on your college experience. Now that it looks like Covid is going to be with us for the long term, I would advise HS students doing the college search (and their parents) to carefully look into the extent of these restrictions before deciding on a school. For example, if you are looking at school where all or most of the classes are still virtual, that should raise some red flags.

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26

You should be able to go out in a larger group wearing masks when not actively eating or drinking–seems like a reasonable thing to ask your friends. Also for hot dorm rooms, SciLi is open 24 hours, rock and jos are open until 2am so I’ve been bouncing around those when it’s hot at night.

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Agreed that C19 might be around beyond the 21 enrollment cycle, and all families should include C19 Responses in their college research. Some families will be more comfortable with loser restrictions, and other families will seek harsher restrictions. I think it makes sense for future applicants to learn how each school is handling the situation now.

There is a big difference between 80% of classes in person, versus 80% virtual only, versus no in-person dining options, versus all dining stations open, versus weekly testing for everyone, versus random testing of 10% of students, versus restrictions on leaving campus, versus an open-campus policy, versus mask mandate, versus mask optional. Regardless of personal preference in regard to C19 approach, families should know what is going so they can make an informed decision that best suits them.

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I know that it suck2 not to have the college experience you expected, and class of 2024 really has had it rough.

However, the difference between colleges that enacted strict COVID 19 restrictions and those that didn’t is the 0.1% positivity rate that you mentioned. The Delta variant hit many younger people than the previous variant, and there are far more breakthrough cases.

There are colleges like Rice that have moved online because of surging cases of COVID 19, mostly because the college did not have as restrictive policies as Brown does.

Ask yourself - would you rather have:
A. Brown-level restriction, on campus, in person
B. Lower restrictions, and then move to online for the rest of the semester
C. Dozens to hundreds of cases per week.
D. Small, rural campus.

That is exactly what they are trying to do. Moreover, you should also consider the fact that faculty, staff, and older graduate students are also part of the Brown community.

You may consider yourself as being safe from COVID 19, since you are a healthy, young, and hopefully vaccinated person. However, almost all of your faculty members are over 30, most are over 40, and many are older than 50 or 60.

The staff is also older than students, and they are even more exposed to infection than faculty.

So on one hand you have “the student undergraduate experience”, and on the other hand, you have the health and lives of staff, faculty, and the students themselves. So if only the students were at risk, then perhaps the risk of infection, complications, and death from COVID may not be worth the possible effects of stress, maybe. But when you start adding the risk to Faculty and staff, not to mention the surrounding community, then the risk from COVID 19 far outweighs the fact that students are not having the “college experience” for which they hoped.

If sucks, yes, but not as much as it would suck if faculty and staff were getting sick, suffering from long term complications of COVID, and dying.

PS. While you may be assuming that teaching you and your fellow students is the primary function of faculty, in fact, that is only about 40% or less of their job. They also do research, advise graduate students, and perform assorted administrative duties. So risking themselves for part of their duties makes even less sense.

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I understand that there are competing interests. A quick search of schools will show you that plenty of other GOOD schools have not taken the approach that Brown has. I don’t accept that this has to be this way, and I wish I had known how things were really going to be post vaccination. I feel duped. Fundamentally sad and duped.

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30

It doesn’t but it is. So incumbent upon you to make the best of it.

I say this with a full appreciation of how tough this may be, but get off CC and go outside and walk around. Appears to be a beautiful sunny start of Autumn day in Providence. Talk to others, eat with others, workout with others and study with others. There are no rules against any of this just some parameters to follow.

Control those aspects of your experience that are within your control. Please go have fun and don’t bother responding to any of us until you have forced yourself to do so!!

Good luck.

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31

Footnote. UCLA has AC. My daughter is in a dorm with AC. Controlling the temp is a beast but there’s AC in a bunch of dorms.

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32

At one of my kids’ colleges everyone has to be vaccinated, they can eat in dining halls, but he only has one in person class. It’s a very large university and numbers are low. Another of my kids attends a college with no vaccine mandate, weekly testing of everyone, mostly in person classes, eating in dining halls permitted, there is a 1.1% positivity rate, with both vaccinated and unvaccinated testing positive, I’m afraid things will shut down if it keeps going up. There is no perfect solution.

33

Fair enough. No one likes the feeling of being left out. Perhaps this is a topic that you could address with your peers: that out of fairness and inclusiveness, that they can split into 2 groups of 3 in such cases. And, it is unlikely that you are alone in this experience. There are perhaps other people in your dorm that have been left out. Reach out to one of them. Or more than one. You might find that some of these people are just as interesting as your “friends”.

The root of positive change starts with an unwillingness to accept that status quo is the way things have to be.

Determine what changes could improve your experience, while maintaining the same level of community safety, going for a “win-win” scenario. Find like minded people and learn what would be the most process to effect the changes you want to see.

Even if you are unsuccessful, you will learn something from this. And perhaps meet more interesting people - and not just find yourself a forgotten #6.

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34

Different colleges are in different places, with different levels of community transmission. As difficult as it is now for Brown to deal with unhappy students and parents, can you imagine what they would have to deal with if any students died from COVID?

Nobody expected the Delta variant to be so contagious and that there would be so many breakthrough cases. While you can feel disappointed, frustrated, unhappy, and cheated, you were not duped by Brown, and the reason you were cheated was out of their control.

I am sure that Brown also wished that they had known how things were really going to be post vaccination. Brown fully planned and intended to have a very different fall semester, but its plans were derailed by the spread of the Delta variant.

You should also accept that Brown has a different perception of risk, and a different willingness to take risks related to COVID than you are. Based on that, you need to make a decision as to whether you are going to make the best of a sucky situation at Brown, or perhaps try to transfer to a location where things may be better for you.

In any case, until you do transfer (if you choose to do so), you are stuck at Brown. I would recommend that you take @Catcherinthetoast’s advice, and find things to enjoy in the meantime. You should also try to do well in your classes, since that would make transferring easier.

Take care and good luck.

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35

FYI other schools in the area responding to outbreaks with more draconian measures then Brown…

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36

I hardly think going to remote classes in the small MBA program for what could be as short as just this week is draconian.

Requiring students to wear masks outside 24/7, even if walking by yourself, is draconian (hello Oberlin). It can always be worse OP.

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37

I was referring specifically to Brown’s recommendations and policies in response to a similar outbreak experienced several weeks back per the OPs comments. Brown did not go remote and has put their model in place to avoid having to go remote.

Highlighting that all schools are facing similar challenges. Some like Brown being prescriptive to avoid the most severe of restrictions while others are taking a more “event driven” responsive approach.

Trying to display for OP her situation may stink but it is not unique.

38

“Draconian” seems a bit much. It’s just a mask. Except in rare instances, the burden on the user is minimal. Not saying it’s a good idea or necessary.

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39

I think this is extremely valuable information for potential students to know. I am very much in the thick of this with a 2024 and 2025 student in two very different regions. They were both extremely active in a few activities so we know A LOT of students all across the country. The difference between covid protocols are MASSIVE. Some administrations and regions are truly back to normal with no masking, in person classes and little to no testing - others are still very much in the thick of trying to identify and control cases. I’m not going to debate what the best policy is, but every family/student should absolutely know what a school’s policy is and whether it aligns with the student/family’s expectations.

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I agree with the intent to be an informed consumer but the dynamic nature of the pandemic has forced specific campus policies to be responsive and fluid in reacting to local circumstances. Student behavior, staffing needs, local and state regulations, housing limitations, access to testing and most importantly local and community outbreaks all unfortunately dictate that what is policy one day may not be the policy the next.

I would be very reluctant to have my child decide future academic opportunities based upon retrospective public health decisions that were made based on specific local circumstances. I understand the frustration many feel but don’t think a schools future response is entirely predictable based upon prior actions given the aforementioned dynamic nature of Covid.

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