“During a virtual Town Hall event today (July 30), Penn State President Eric Barron, along with University leaders, shared with the campus community specific plans that officials have been developing throughout the spring and summer for start of the fall 2020 semester.”
Classes start, officially, Monday. Students started a staggered move-in 72 hrs ago (starting w intl and freshmen) so all the students won’t even be here for 2 more days. And already, we have huge parties. I give Penn State until the end of next week:
Agreed. I saw the pictures of the huge crowds out on the East Dorm lawn and thought the same thing. I told my senior son to be prepared to be all online. I’m not sure what they expected with a bunch of 18 year olds away at college for the first time - but I’d certainly hoped there would be more adherence to the rules. I guess you can only expect so much from kids. Every univeristy out there is facing the same problem.
@greenbutton @jlhpsu I agree that 18 yo’s should know better. But I also fault the “adults” in the room - Administration, Res Life Coordinators, RA’s. What did they expect when freshman moved in 3-7 days before classes begin?
Think about it from the perspective of a freshman: you are moved into a small room without comforts of family and pets, have to learn to live with a stranger, food teeters between awful and palatable with massively long lines and the “good” food stations not open, food is all to go, so you eat either outside if you can find space or in your dorm room.
And by the way, you have NOTHING to do. Maybe you can walk and buy books. A few classes have pre-assignments. All of those can be completed Saturday or Sunday afternoon. But Freshmen moved in Monday - Thursday!
They could have set up scavenger hunts on campus, trivia, cornhole tournaments (buy your own bean bags and don’t touch anyone else’s), movie night in the baseball field. Decorate your window contest. All socially distanced and mask-wearing I might add.
How does Administration not learn from other colleges who are going through the exact same thing?
They are bored, so that makes them sympathetic? I have trouble with that line of reasoning. And as the university and town hemorrhage money, expecting them to spend more to entertain students is also unrealistic. It’s boring to be in the hospital, lose your job, work from home, not go to worship, movies, weddings…but that’s what grownups do. And as the students are constantly indignantly saying, they are grownups and wanted to be treated as such.
Of course no one expected the majority of them to actually follow the rules set up for their own safety, that they agreed to. But there was nothing to do but try.
@greenbutton
The University and the town would hemorrhage A LOT more money if those students don’t show up. To the tune of hundreds of millions of $$$ lost. There are already at least a half-dozen storefronts ‘for lease’ on College Avenue from spring/summer … without the students there this fall, many more would not make it. How many business were closed this summer and didn’t find it worthwhile to even bother to open because they couldn’t even cover fixed costs?
I disagree with your statement that the majority aren’t following rules. In fact, I see exactly the opposite. (For reference, the video linked at East Halls was less than 200 kids out of approx. 4,000 - 5,000 who live in East). I walk on campus and the vast majority are masked. In fact, in my sample on Saturday morning, I observed:
- 5 adults (clearly not kids - gray hair and all) WITHOUT masks (some alone, one pair, some walking, one biking)
- 12/14 students wearing masks. (the two without were sprinting/biking uphill alone).
So, by my observations, I saw:
100% of townspeople/professors NOT wearing masks
15% of students NOT wearing masks.
Of the kids testing positive, many are asymptomatic. I wish the COVID dashboard would reflect data points such as:
- percentage on campus vs. off campus
- severity of symptoms vs. asymptomatic
- hospitalizations
I completely agree about the dashboard. Our observations have been different than yours. In town, I saw zero people without a mask. The ordinances are new, and I think we have to expect a learning curve. But even before, outside of town in my limited forays in the COG townships March - August I have seen almost zero unmasked people.
From town to home, we saw 4 different parties of 15-20 students, unmasked, undistanced. Late Sunday afternoon. While the 200 or so at the infamous East party (which didn’t really last that long) aren’t a majority, add in the 3 (3 , or 2?) j sanctioned and closed frats, the house parties, etc…okay, I’m still wrong. NOT a majority, that was unfair. But certainly nobody expected it to work well. I am more shocked that the immediate numbers aren’t higher, but we have another week or so to see what the trend will be.
Went in town twice last weekend and I saw all but one person wearing a mask…and it was an adult.
We just built a house in state college that we intend to move to full time once our youngest (currently a HS sophomore) leaves the nest - so we have been up there almost every weekend moving in, decorating, etc… I have been really impressed with the masks when downtown. Even people walking on the sidewalks keep them on. I haven’t witnessed the parties (yet), but I’m sure not all students are following the rules. Not all adults will either - but in general, when I’ve been downtown over the last month, I’ve seen nearly everyone with a mask. My senior son told me he had to cut through the east halls lawn to get somewhere and there were TONS of students out without masks. He was ticked because he doesn’t want to get sent home his senior year!
Compare state college with the Sheetz in Ebensburg where I stopped on my way home where I was the ONLY patron with a mask on. I was livid. The door says you need one, all the employees were wearing one, and I was being looked at like I had two heads because I was wearing one. All central PA is not equal lol.
@jlhpsu , welcome to the neighborhood. We can now call you a townie!
Thanks! We love State College so much…can’t wait until we can be there full time, until then we are weekend visitors!