University of HI announced yesterday they will have in person classes and dorms in the fall on all 10 of the sites in their system. Details are being worked out and the larger lectures may be online with smaller in person labs and sections.
Margaret Atwood wrote a great piece for one of our national newspapers about growing up during the time of the polio, scarlet fever, and diptheria epidemics.
And this doesn’t even begin to address the question of the faculty. If faculty members are told to self-quarantine at home for 14 days, are they then carrying on their classes online? What about labs?
And what about faculty members who actually become ill? Upthread it was suggested that they would continue to work from their sickbeds. If their cases are severe? Contrary to apparently popular belief, most faculty don’t have backup replacements waiting in the wings. Adjuncts even less so. I can see adjuncts trying to fight their way through it in order to avoid being penalized for missing that much class - hey, I can still wield a dry-erase marker from my ventilator bed! Just hook up my Zoom!
This to say that there are issues that we have not even considered which will no doubt come up as we go along. No amount of planning is going to cover all the contingencies.
One of my sons professors had a baby during the semester and took 2 week paternity leave. During this time the TAs took over
Covid is not the only source of illness for staff or faculty. What’s the process now? For flu, shingles or god forbid more serious issues that unfortunately happen all the time.
I hope that at risk faculty, those with an at risk spouse or parent in their home are given a research year option. They can fill in the gaps with willing PhD candidates or adjuncts who feel comfortable doing so. It would benefit the school with some more published work and keep them out of harms way.
A year seems reasonable, but if it is longer, ( and likely will be with no vaccine by then ) perhaps the faculty member needs to change positions. Schools cant pay indefinitely for teachers not teaching.
@roycroftmom Yes, for sure. It will require some different planning and decision making if this lingers.
@EmptyNestSoon2 , the kind of travel and hiking opportunities you mention cannot happen this year for a gap year experience. I live close to the Appalachian Trail up north, and the AT was one of the first things to unofficially shut down -thru- hikers were asked to get off trail. Trail towns do not want people walking through from other places. Hikers up our way are being told to “stay low and local” - meaning, only hike trails you can walk to from your home, and stay off the higher peaks. Otherwise, you put Search and Rescue in a bad position if they have to come get you (no social distancing on a rescue carry-out).
Also, the shelter situation on the trail lends itself to crowding at night. Yes, one could sleep in your tent, but hikers also congregate at shelters (and trail towns) to socialize during the day. That is part of the culture…very little social distancing happens during breaks and “zero” days. This would not be the year to do the AT (or any other thru-hike).
In addition, one would not hike the AT during a school year (over the winter). March - September/October is the usual timeframe. Certain trail facilities by me are shut down for all of 2020.
Even outside trailwork and environmental projects are not allowed right now up our way. Too many people needing to work too close together.
As for overseas - I have a hunch it will be a while before Americans are allowed to enter many other countries for tourism purposes.
In short, I don’t think a lot of what you propose is possible if colleges are closed for COVID reasons.
And as for the “only unhappy campers being the class of 2021“…that’s an entire graduating class of students. It would make much more sense for there to be “only” some unhappy campers in the class of 2020 instead. Maybe better to have some 2020s be unhappy with having to take a semester online than make it twice as hard for the class of 2021 to get into their desired colleges.
With 36% of Manoa campus students from out-of-state and some in-state students from islands other than Oahu, what do they advise students to do with respect to the 14 day quarantine on arrival from out-of-state or other islands? The quarantine does not allow leaving one’s dorm room or other housing for any reason except medical care (food must be delivered).
“If faculty members are told to self-quarantine at home for 14 days, are they then carrying on their classes online?”
Once testing is available quickly and everywhere (it will be) self quantine for 14 days will be a thing of the past. People will get tested.
Daily? Test results can vary daily, but I do not think anyone will test that often.
Tests are producing false negatives. Your viral count might not produce a positive on the day tested (say right after being contact traced) but will a day or two later from the same encounter. It is not like a black and white thing- if negative you are not sick. You can have covid and test negative on the rapid test.
They have a commitment from the state and local government to make it happen. Once you have that you can plan. I posted this quote from USC’s press conference earlier:
To feel confident enough to go public on 100% testing tells me they have promises from the State of South Carolina that they will get testing supplies.
If my kid does a gap year, she wants to work in a local nursing home or assisted living facility for the year, since there is a true need and she’s premed. And she is thinking about teaching herself a new language on-line. Honestly, I’m the one who keeps pushing the gap year idea because I think next year is going to be a mess, with limited or no ECs/research/internships, and I hate to throw-away one of her 4 years on an on-line experience (or severely limited on-campus experience), especially at a cost of $70k plus. It’s just not worth it.
The U of Arizona president said that they had developed their own testing for both the virus and antibodies, that they expect to have in large enough quantity to test the entire campus population, students and staff. (I’ll believe it when I see it). Perhaps U S. Carolina has done the same.
I have a hard time fathoming how any sizable university can conjure large enough quarantine facilities. I still want to see the plans to feed everyone safely.
I suspect that at least in HI, they plan to be done with the 14 day quarantine policy by the time school starts.
Seems like most of these plans are wishful thinking. Hope they are spending at least as much effort to improve the online experiences.
Not sure I have seen it mentioned, but UT Austin reduced the tuition for summer classes (which is usually 85% of regular) to 50% of regular, because they would be online. I don’t believe for a second this would hold true for the fall semester, if online.
@melvin123 I wonder if a nursing home will let you daughter work there?
Not daily, after possible exposure. This is what they are doing in South Korea… Contact tracing and testing. It works.
I was wondering the same thing. D23 can’t volunteer at the local homeless shelter because of COVID; she’s been there for a year, but now she needs to hold off for the foreseeable future. Though admittedly that is different from a college student filling a needed job position.
Did they have any warning that this was about to happen? Time to plan? Also, lots of schools don’t have TAs.
Some people here act as if this was unprecedented. They feel SO put upon by… I don’t know, the government? For trying to keep society safe? Americans have lived in a golden exceptionalist bubble too long. This is a wake up call. We’re not exempt from nature. And we were caught unprepared, many of us have been undisciplined and frankly in denial. Time to get real, and – I say – time to stop whining and act rationally.
To be clear: I am NOT advocating stay-at-home until there is a vaccine. That’s unrealistic. I am advocating listening to scientists, demanding a science-based strategy (with fall back plans) help, direction and accountability from our local, state and federal governments. That’s how successful, first world nations should act. We have a few to follow as examples, in case our imaginations fail us.