It depends. I grew up in a university town (full 4 year U of Wisconsin campus) and there were a lot of local kids who did, including my brother. I now live in Denver and a lot of students go to Metro and all of them commute. If you live in a university town, some do commute and others live in the dorm. One kid I know lived in the dorms but the college was actually closer to his either of his parents’ homes than the high school he attended.
My DD’s state school in NC said on a live stream that masks would be encouraged but not required. So I predict very few students wearing them past the first 30 days.
Encouraged but not required in the classroom?
@AlwaysMoving Here’s the link to the Purdue Pledge that students are asked to adhere too this coming semester: https://protect.purdue.edu/app/uploads/2020/05/508_PUR-035-Safe-Campus-Pledge-Card_FINAL_edit.pdf
The university has not explicitly spoken about how they’ll enforce but it doesn’t sound like they are going to mess around. Parties are on the list of banned activities so I could see university or town police breaking things up very quickly.
The students really want to go back to campus and all those in my D’s social circle are saying they are happy to follow the rules to keep it as safe as possible.
@alh That is what keeps being said. For all spaces on campus including classrooms it will be encouraged but not required.
Here’s a survey of 310 college presidents. Lots of findings, but figure 5 details some actions, including a mask requirement ‘on campus’:
53% said they will be required (but it’s unclear where), 44% haven’t decided, 3% won’t require.
In general, it seems not many decisions about the details have been made.
Great information!! But now the question to me is if ones school is not going to require face masks or testing etc on campus would your send you child to that school? I don’t think I would. That just seems kinda irresponsible to me even with all the current information we have now.
Can you please cite which “many schools” you’re talking about. Because without any specific examples, it sounds like you’re just theorizing – without really having an real-life experience in the matter.
I’m starting to feel like the expectation of college campus Covid-19 testing is becoming this generation’s version of the 1950s’ “duck-and-cover” drill to keep children safe from atomic bombs.
Things change. The residential college system in the US is not going to be the same in the fall. It may never be the same.
I’m fine with classes staying online until there are other ways to significantly reduce the transmission & death rates without everyone staying home. Even though my college senior is grieving about missing out next year. I think that residential college can be a wonderful experience for some kids. I don’t think it is essential.
I am fine with maintaining the payments I make for college even if it is online. I see that as compromise when I know the cost of the education will rise because of the pandemic. I personally don’t want to make up the difference of faculty rejecting research grants so they can spend more time teaching. At the institution with which I am most familiar, research brings in 4 times the funding that undergraduate tuition brings in.
And this kind of prediction is precisely what’s making some faculty and staff concerned about reopening schools.
However, there are some differences with respect to masks versus a possible vaccine. Mask wearing is more to protect others in case you are unknowingly asymptomatically contagious – i.e. it is more for altruistic goals than selfish goals. People who do not care about others that much may resist the inconvenience of wearing a mask in more crowded places because the benefit to themselves of wearing a mask is not as much as the benefit to others. In contrast, getting a vaccine serves selfish goals (protecting yourself against a disease) as well as altruistic ones (protecting others you may come into contact with by not being able to transmit the disease).
That poll’s detailed results are at http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/Expectations-for-a-COVID-19-Vaccine.aspx . For those 49% who will get a vaccine, the vast majority of them listed both selfish reasons (93% “I want to protect myself”) and altruistic reasons (88% “I want to protect my family”, 78% “I want to protect my community”). Among the 20% who will not get a vaccine, the biggest worry was about side effects (70%), but some believe that they will get infected from the vaccine (42%) and some do not think that COVID-19 is a serious risk (31%).
It is not surprising that people age 60 and over are much more likely to say that they will get the vaccine than those age 18-59. Of the various demographic groups, black people are the least likely to want to get the vaccine (25%) and most likely to refuse (40%), despite COVID-19 itself hitting black people worse compared to white people in the US. The legacy of racism in medicine (e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm ) as well as widely held current incorrect beliefs about racial differences (e.g. https://www.pnas.org/content/113/16/4296 ) probably has a lot to do with it.
I’m surprised that any college would not have it in writing that masks are mandatory in campus buildings.
From the quoted poll, only 3% of college presidents say their school won’t require masks. It’s very much an outlier position.
@“Cardinal Fang” well it will be very interesting to see which states have colleges that don’t require them!
There will be some states that require masks indoors, so colleges in those states won’t have a choice.
Exactly. Same deal for faculty members who might have health issues – teach online.
And once vaccines are approved, colleges can require them of students, faculty and staff.
btw: someone mentioned North Carolina earlier. Mask recommended, not required is prolly a state thing today. I spoke with my sister who lives in Charlotte on Monday and she said that masks are only recommended inside stores and other retailers. Her estimate was <half of the customers had a mask on when she went to Harris-Teeter on Sunday, but nearly all the employees had masks on. (the butcher’s were hanging below their noses she reported)
So it should not be surprising that the State public unis follow current practice.
@bluebayou Agree it will be decided state by state for large state schools.
Out of curiosity, I pulled a list of all the states where face masks are recommended but not required and the list is extensive. It will be interesting to see what larger state schools do about masks where there is no statewide requirement.
Looks like Yale will adopt a “home by Thanksgiving” academic calendar for next Fall regardless where the students are:
https://provost.yale.edu/news/fall-calendar-announcement
And, as Yale goes, likely Wesleyan and Trinity will go, too.
That presumes that the expensive fancy LAC does not provide anything better in academic content or prestige that a student or parents may be willing to pay for, correct?