Covid-19 might be running around in the fall as someone above stated, and @JanieWalker as you also stated, fall 2021, and yes we dont know if /when vaccine. So I think the more important aspect to this , is will there be treatments that will dimish the ICU and death rates to something nearer to flu. My D, while at college has gotten Flu, Pneumonia, and Mono. She got the Flu from her roommate who had it first. I am sure she spread it to others before she knew she had it, as it was sorority recruitment weekend. The difference–none of the college kids ended up in the ICU or died of the Flu. So lets just say that covid-19 is here to stay. Right now for some people it kills, and this is real and scary. If by the fall some of the antivirals that are in research or other treatments are keeping people from dying or getting real sick, then Covid becomes just one of many coronavirus’es that do spread around college campuses , like also mentioned above, things like mumps have.
A month ago I was freaked out about everything and what if I got this. What if I died, but as time goes on and they are learning more and more about treating this, I am tending to get less scared. Just read how someone got plasma and was able to live and recover. I think we compare to 1918 and yes there will be waves, but will modern medicine lower the death rate so that life goes back to cautious normal.? I have 2 college kids, and my oldest should be graduating in December. She is having a full on mental breakdown right now. She lost her dream summer job that she has wanted since she was 8 years old. My youngest is also having issues. If fall is online , could she opt to skip the semester, sure, but then again, what would she do. She has to put money down on a lease next month. But if she doesnt and there is school, she will have no place to live. The Universities likely wont have a full plan until July. (for her school starts Aug 31st)
As far as gap years and national parks and helping outdoors as someone suggested. Not everyone can do that for various health reasons, or might have a desire to be outside during their GAP year. Some kids are indoor oriented and hate the outdoors. If your kids love it, that is great.
Does the University have crews to wipe down every seat after each lecture or is this some work study job for a student now?
I have been pondering cleaning and how this could work. I honestly feel it is going to take everyone (work or school) and nobody can expect cleaning staffs to take care of it. This may sound crazy but I envision everyone carrying a canister of wipes and wiping down where they are about to sit/work.
With the social distancing rules we should see a very very small number of the usual colds and viruses.
College students are not going to social distance. This is a pipe dream if people think they are. Ok, maybe they will on the street or in line from the person in front of them but they will be with their peer group socializing and doing other things. All the normal winter viruses will be present but hopefully with the light shed on improved hygiene it will be better.
Denmark has had elementary schools open since April 13th and has not seen a spike. This is why colleges are holding off decisions until early July because we’ll have a good idea of what happens when we ‘open up’ with our own data and with data from Europe who relaxed restrictions over the last few weeks.
Remember, colleges will not survive without residential students so they will do what they must to get that cashflow back on campus. Testing and Contact Tracing are the containment methods of choice and have worked all around the world.
Regarding cleaning, I think this will be like the gym has always been. There will be a sanitation station in each room, and students will wipe down their own desk and chair b4 and after class. This will happen at K12 too, at least for upper grades. It will take less than a minute each time.
Custodial staff will come through a few times a day to clean other surfaces.
Everyone will be encouraged not to touch door handles, light switches, etc. as much as possible. For years in public places I’ve used my sleeve or the bottom of my shirt to open doors, for example. Or if it has a push bar, I use my arm or hip to push open.
We’ll all have to learn new habits to help stop the spread.
Sadly, I thought most of those gap year suggestions posed far greater risk of harm to a young woman than getting COVID would.
You’ve never worked on a college campus, have you? No faculty member is going to clean chairs and desks. Even if it didn’t violate union rules, which it does, faculty members don’t have time. Some of them will dispose of their own used coffee cups when they leave a meeting, but many can’t be troubled to do that. What makes you think they’ll clean up after students?
As far as students cleaning up after themselves? I wouldn’t expect a lot of that either. Many seem to think the staff should do it for them. Some are very good about tossing their used plates, etc., but others not so much. And some are pretty entitled. There was at least one kid a couple of years ago who refused to flush his dorm toilet and told the cleaning staff, “that’s what you’re paid for.” Nobody made him do it either.
I think it will be up to the kids to wipe down the surfaces when they arrive to a class (or to a library or wherever they are going to sit). Right before things got really bad, we were out for dinner in our town and brought wipes and our family just wiped down the table really quickly before we sat down. Some kids will care and carry wipes with them and I bet a whole lot of kids won’t bother. Maybe schools could have wipes at the entrance to classrooms or buildings for kids to grab like we do at the grocery store to wipe our carts but who knows if those are in good supply right now for a school to be able to set that up and keep stock.
CDC has covid-19 guidelines for colleges that cover many areas, including cleaning/disinfecting. I expect many colleges are using these materials as a basis for their re-opening plans.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/reopen-guidance.html
Here’s more that posters on this board might be interested in:
Overall guidance for preparedness, mitigation strategies, and decision tree:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-ihe-response.html
Mitigation activities (school specific page 4, in main pdf)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/community-mitigation.html
In large lecture halls, dining areas, etc. I think we are going to see less wiping down and more disposable table covers, seat covers, etc. Disinfection will happen more frequently but those chemical are toxic and won’t be used in between every group of students that come in or out of a building.
I can see separating places like dining areas, libraries and large lecture halls into regions where people can sit to make it easier to clean after people have left. We may see assigned dining times in dining commons, assigned shower times in dorms and assigned seats in lectures that alternate so that students aren’t sitting at the same desk as the person in the lecture before them. It will feel restrictive at first but will quickly become the new norm.
@Mwfan1921 OMG that cleaning protocol is giving me an anxiety attack. If every classroom, library, dorm, etc., has to be cleaned like that, no one is going back to college.
At DS19’s school they don’t have dinning halls. They have food courts that offer a variety of eatery options just like you find in malls. The food courts are not restricted to students in residence but rather are open to everyone on campus and are located in various buildings across campus like the student centre. The only difference is that residential students use their meal plans for payment and everyone else pays cash. These food courts are very crowded both for service and seating. I can’t even begin to imagine how they’re going to go about implementing social distancing.
Note that the cleaning guidelines are substantially the same as the influenza ones:
Yikes. There are some dramatic steps in this guidance. If an infected person has been on campus, the college should:
Work with local public health officials to determine cancellation of classes and closure of buildings and facilities. IHE administrators should work closely with their local health officials to determine if a short-term closure (for 2-5 days) of all campus buildings and facilities is needed. In some cases, IHE administrators, working with local health officials, may choose to only close buildings and facilities that had been entered by the individual(s) with COVID-19…
Discourage students, staff, and faculty from gathering or socializing anywhere. This includes group childcare arrangements, as well as gathering at places like a friend’s house, a favorite restaurant, or the local coffee shop.
Oh my goodness, there are gap year possibilities for everyone—outdoor kids, indoor kids, healthy kids, less-healthy kids, risk-takers, risk-avoiders. Not every idea is for every person, obviously!! It just takes a little imagination (or research) to develop a long list of options that are appealing to an individual.
Let’s say that @JanieWalker’s extremely pessimistic vision comes true, and basically we are in pretty full lockdown through May 2021 as we are now; nothing new opens. Here’s 5 more minutes worth of idea generation:
*. Tackle a major craft project. Perhaps learn to make a quilt. Get to know (through FaceTime, Zoom, or other socially-appropriate way) the cute old ladies from the needlepoint shop in town who can coach you through it.
*. Learn to play the guitar, piano, or ukulele. So many kids (mine included) who study things like engineering which gobble up most of their academic schedules are deprived of great humanities learning opportunities. Use this year to focus on that!
*. Learn to code. So useful, but some Less-tech-savvy kids are too afraid they’ll ruin their GPAs or struggle, so they don’t want to take it during college. Expose yourself in a low-risk way through online free courses
- Get in the best shape of your life. Peloton, live pilates classes via Zoom, lots of ways. Train for a long-distance running event—even if there are no million person marathon events, running your own solo 26.2 (or 13.1, or 5k) will provide a massive sense of accomplishment and a dose of good health. Drop the extra 30 pounds you might be carrying through learning healthful cooking and exercise.
*. Make a giant list of life lessons you want to learn, and tackle one per day. Learn to change a flat, jumpstart a car, fix a broken toilet, balance a checkbook, cook a fantastic meal, invest savings/learn about the stock market, etc. - Sadly lots of kids have never had paid teenager-y type jobs as they’ve over-focused on ECs. What a shame. Spend a few months delivering pizza, working as a shopper for Instacart (definitely hiring), or working in local shops (opportunities will vary by locale, but there will be stores open in the next 12 months). The lessons learned from these jobs are invaluable.
*. Some lucky go-getters will be able to land plum internships, although the total quantity of co-ops and internships will surely decrease. But that doesn’t mean zero opportunities. Seek one.
*. Write a comedy script
*. If you live/stay where it’s possible, get scuba-certified
*. Become a yogi. Become stronger and more flexible than you’ve ever been, and top it off by learning about meditation. This could change your life, rid you of anxiety, prevent future back pain, and help you through tough times ahead. - Perfect your photography. Learn to edit movies and photos with software. Then make $ offering to photoshop neighbors’ Christmas card photos—make them blemish- and wrinkle-free and utterly gorgeous to their delight!
*. Choreograph and create hilarious tic tok videos with your family. Oh! If you are good at dances, you can make a little business teaching this to others—lots of parents want to create funny things but don’t know how to go about it. Choreograph something fun for them, teach them to do it (outdoors, socially distanced), and provide them with something they can share with family and friends. You will spread a lot of joy and make some cash!
*. Volunteer with Americorps. They are currently recruiting and have thousands of volunteers age 18-30 supporting COVID response. FEMACorps and VISTA are part of this. It’s happening.
*. Learn a language online, or through Rosetta Stone. When you are ready, you can get a talking exchange person from that country to meet you on FAceTime and practice. Hopefully soon you can go to that country in person to use your newfound skills, but there’s no hurry. Or, it could help you land a future internship in Spain for the summer of 2022 ;-).
You may not like any individual suggestion, but the point is that any thoughtful and creative person can think of valuable ways to spend time. You can make money, serve others, learn skills, See some sights, or develop relationships, etc. Personally I would advocate that kids not spend the whole year at their parents house, although that’s an option. But how cool would it be to go move in with your aunt and uncle who live a little bit away, and be their “au pair” for your younger cousins—building memories and family bonds while getting out of your house and serving others. Or rent a cheap airbnb with a few friends (your new family unit in quarantine times) where you can do these things.
As @JanieWalker mentioned, it is conceivable that fall 2021 will still not be fully “back to normal”, but lets say both 2020 and 2021 are both less than ideal Residential college situations. I’d rather my kid have one less-than-stellar year than two. And only the most dour, hardened pessimist would be thinking 2022 will still have us in lockdown; I can’t even go there.
I happen to believe that there will be some level of simple travel opportunities available at some point between September 2020 and May 2021, and with a flexible mindset, one can take advantage. I would Obviously not encourage kids to expect to plan a “See-20-European-Cities-in-40-Days” kind of trip, with expectations of boogie-ing down on Parisian night club dance floors, but my goodness there are much simpler ways to have profound experiences. Just requires a little creativity to see it, I guess.
So for those who are ok with online classes or a modified, socially-distanced campus experience this fall, and want to get on with it, that’s awesome. But anyone who is not excited about that has a plethora of options available.
Personally, I wish my kids could reasonably take gap years this upcoming year, but since they both already did (with utterly marvelous experiences and growth), and I don’t want them to qualify for AARP before they graduate, they will head back to school no matter what form that takes. But if anyone wants suggestions or lessons learned, feel free to PM me. Those gap years were the best gifts ever, and they can range from money-making, to cheap, to expensive—the sky is the limit to how you design your time.
Good luck to everyone planning next year, whether it’s online, on-campus, or on the couch ;-). I think an adaptable mindset will benefit everyone, as change and new innovations and new horrors and new advances keep our heads spinning!!
Draconian guidelines will just be ignored. More practical guidelines have a chance of compliance.
Yes, contact tracing will come into play then, and try to identify all the people who had close contact (less than 6 ft distance for at least 15 minutes), then test and quarantine those close contacts. The state health departments will likely be doing the contact tracing in most states.
Note on the decision tree if there is no community spread, there is not a recommendation for social distancing.
I have worked on a college campus, but I don’t think the teaching staff was unionized.
I’m sure professors won’t like having to wipe down the desks, and it will end up a bit of a power play, but what is the alternative? Hiring a large staff to stand around and wait for the break between classes? There’s no money for that. It’ll be the students or the professors.
I’m sure there will be exceptions, but there won’t be keg parties, dancing, etc. If most of the students don’t practice social distancing then the school will be closed and the classes moved online.
Yep, the cynic in me thinks that colleges want to give the perception that things will be “relatively” back to normal in the fall so they don’t lose students (and their tuition next year) but in reality they are ready to pull the trigger on another semester (or two) of online learning. False hopes right now…in contrast I do appreciate the colleges that are waiting to make an official announcement until they have better information this summer otherwise it’s just pure speculation if the college campuses will be open in the fall.