My BSN nursing student is online for the rest of the semester - her nursing program is well-suited to going online, even her clinicals. That program and those who run it are amazing. She will absolutely return in the fall, since she will be in an off-campus apartment. Whether her classes are online or not, she will be there. Enough is enough.
My high school junior has continued working at her grocery clerk job, sometimes logging 25 and 30 hours a week while distance learning. She and the other high schoolers who work there have single handedly kept the registers running. I find it ironic that it’s okay for her to work (a choice) but not go to school (a need).
And, I fear, the government officials in my state don’t seem to understand their own charts and statistics. When asked, they just say “stay the course”. People here are getting restless. If there is no plan offered to start things back up - just a plan, not even a date - there will be people in the streets whether they want them there or not.
I believe the colleges/universities that will be open in Fall will vary greatly across the U.S. All of the states (and even counties) did not institute “shelter in place” at the same time and neither will they all reopen at the same time.
Our federal gov’t has left many, if not most, of these decisions to the state. I see individual governors/mayors using their discretion to open things up. The economy and the almighty dollar will start to prevail. Some states will do it better than others. There will be false starts. My bet is, unless you are in a hotspot, businesses will slowly start to open in May or June according to need, maybe “more” essential type businesses first. K-12 schools will open in the Fall with colleges to follow. I see social distancing and masks staying for while. I do not see mass gatherings anytime soon. Governors/mayors will watch the numbers and adjust accordingly. If hospital capacity becomes an issue again, there will be more shut downs in those areas.
I also see the vulnerable “at risk” populations for Covid-19 having the burden to continue to self isolate for their own safety while the rest of the country slowly moves on. What does that mean for kids going to college in the Fall? I believe if your chosen college is open in the Fall, most of the healthy (not at risk) students will go. Those with underlying conditions probably will not go and may choose those schools closer to home or commute from home or online from home. Faculty with underlying conditions will probably try to be accommodated by their schools… maybe office type work rather than interactions with students… maybe some early retirements. This will be the new normal. It is not going away.
Such faculty may prefer to teach in a giant lecture hall, where the lecture stage tends to have more distance from the students than in a smaller classroom. A giant lecture hall is also more likely to have provisions (sound system, microphone, projector, etc.) that can allow the instructor to give the same lecture (including answering questions from the students) without physically being present if there is a heightened risk to either the instructor (e.g. instructor has a risk-increasing pre-existing condition) or the students (e.g. the instructor has tested positive for COVID-19 despite no or minimal symptoms).
However, colleges typically do not have enough giant lecture halls to put all classes in them.
I am sure elementary school teachers might prefer that format too, for their safety as well. Unlikely everyone’s preferences will be accommodated. I wish my office building would empty, but it will not.
I don’t think it will be so easy for colleges to say, ‘healthy with no co-morbidities are welcome, others may come but at your own risk.’ Moreover, not sure it’s even legal as compliance with the ADA would be an issue. County/State health officers might have some discretion on what/how to open and to who, but if colleges advertise that they are open to education on campus , they have to open to all.
Schools will definitely reopen in the fall, enough with the doom and gloom. The economy can not remain closed for that long. This is a virus that mostly kills people with pre-existing conditions. Those people and the elderly will probably be the only ones required to follow strict distancing measures. The country will reopen sooner than many think.
There are also many college age students with co-morbidities that can’t risk getting sick…obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, heart conditions, etc.
Obviously this group along with elderly will not be going out.
The colleges won’t be saying that. Some families may choose to have their child not attend or not live in a dorm, but the colleges will be open to all.
@Empireapple I don’t disagree with that. I think students with underlying issues may have to make the decision to not go to college on campus in the fall. It will still be scary to send our healthy kids off to college but, hopefully, we will know more by the time we all need to decide. I fully intend to get an antibody test for S19. I think it’s likely he’s already had the virus. Even though the jury is out on if antibodies will make a person immune to the virus, I’d still feel way better sending him back to school if he had the antibodies.
People of all ages with underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, including:
People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
People who have serious heart conditions
People who are immunocompromised
Many conditions can cause a person to be immunocompromised, including cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications
People with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)
People with diabetes
People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
People with liver disease
Ok, just thinking out loud here about college classes in the fall. The kids are mostly not as vulnerable, some are though. Professors and others may be more vulnerable. What if the classes were set up via video feed? Professors could remote into the lecture halls, classrooms, etc, thus protecting them. Students that feel they need to be protected could attend these classes from their dorm, off-campus housing or the comfort of their own home. Dorms could be divided between vulnerable and less vulnerable students. Those more vulnerable could restrict themselves. Everyone else goes about life.
Colleges need to adjust. Some variation of this could help with that.
colleges will be open and I think most of us agree on that, the question is , will dorms be open and classrooms, there are roughly 3.000 colleges in the US they are a business in 99% of the case ( I may put BYU in the 1%) , it seems some will open the dorms and some will not based on what they feel they have to do and hope for the best, the questions are how do we as parents and students decide to go to said college. Do we send our children and our money to a campus that says we are open and hope will work out, do we always wait for the call saying it flared up again , time to bug out, do we stay home and do online and hope for the best come Jan.Right now colleges are open just empty , will that be the model in the fall as well, who knows bit the clock is ticking. My fear is some schools will open because they have to or else they will go under.
Yes, groups with pre-existing conditions are at a higher risk, but adults 18-22 are still at a very low risk even if they have these pre-existing conditions.
"The important stats on young adults:
In Spain, out of 1,285 cases for people 20 to 29 (a much bigger sample size than we have for children), 183 of them have been hospitalized, a 14 percent rate; eight have ended up in intensive care, a 0.6 percent rate, and four people in this age range have died, a 0.3 percent fatality rate.
Italy and South Korea have reported no fatalities for this group; China reports that 0.2 percent of cases for these young people end in death.
The CDC covers a huge 20-44 age range in its data, but here’s what we know about that entire group: 14.3 percent hospitalized, 2 percent in the ICU, and 0.1 percent fatality rate."
I wonder how COVID19 compares with flu outcomes for this age group?
Expect a flow of students from schools announcing they will be online to schools that are open in person-so kids will attend Scripps rather than Barnard, or Duke rather than Columbia. Many will double-deposit to hedge their bets.
Franklin & Marshal just sent an email saying they are reopening admissions for students who want a more local option since their school of choice may be closed/online in the fall. Admissions are on a rolling basis and they are waiving the application fee.
They don’t say definitively if they will be open but I wonder if they are looking for more students who would be able to commute since kids aren’t going abroad or because they want the dorms less full for social distancing. Or perhaps it’s just creative marketing since they are not getting their expected yield.
My D also got an email from St Olaf which was also “reopening“ their admissions. Not sure if they also aren’t meeting their yield as they have a high number of international students.