Based on the fatality rate for 20 year olds, even the largest colleges are at relatively low risk of having one or more students die. And the largest colleges (which have the highest risk due to sheer numbers) are generally public so ultimately have a state backstop. So the risk of financial disaster from students going elsewhere or even litigation from students wanting refunds might be more of a concern.
On the other hand the risk of deaths amongst faculty and other employees is much more material and just like any other business will have to be addressed by taking precautions and then whatever combination of safe harbors and liability results from new federal/state laws and litigation.
I might of missed a point here. Who said the kids can’t go get some food to bring it back to campus? Is this a hypothetical?
If your kids healthy I wouldn’t see the problem. If not, then I would.
At a large school like Michigan no way to stop this.
People coming on campus as stated really isn’t a problem as long as everyone follows the guidelines. To me this is more of an issue. Our mail carrier doesn’t always have her mask over her nose and mouth. Some stores the clerks don’t either. It all comes down to washing your hands, not touching your face
Don’t be to close to someone infected.
It might be a good idea to tell your kids now to take a daily shower after being in classes. College kids especially freshman don’t always take daily showers and stink anyway… Lol ?.
Someone mentioned about a blood drive and getting an antibody tests. Now that I am thinking about it this is brilliant. Colleges could have large scale blood drives and kids get tested when they come to campus.
My son said something very interesting. he said that once we all get used to wearing masks, even if a vaccine happens and masks are not longer necessary, that it will be a long time for people to stop wearing masks.
As far as food goes, I think we are all jumping the gun. The kids will get food somehow. I am more concerned about the classes.
What about antigen tests? Those are like pregnancy tests. They detect the antigen created when someone has the virus and you know in just a few minutes. That’s what we need.
Wonder what’s going to happen with relationships. Will the kids get a test prior? Will there be a campus punch card for each test you get like they do at my car wash? Will their ID cards say they were initially tested? Which wouldn’t actually do any good.
There is a breath test with a 30 second result coming. Hope it’s ready for the call.
Would be good, but not sure if it’s feasible, if kids got tested right before they left home to go to campus and then again as soon as they arrived. And stagger the move in dates so not everyone is exposed to everyone all at the same time.
I wonder how big of an impact the rising seniors will have on colleges. If a big school struggles with COVID and continually closes and opens campus or a small LAC serving mostly box lunches. I imagine a lot of private schools will try to form a solid base to their class through binding ED, so they won’t have a lot of time to learn on the fly.
^^^^Antigen test is fast and inexpensive, but has very high chance of false negatives. Therefore, it is only useful if most people being tested are likely infected (i.e. to confirm their infections).
I thought the issue with (certain) antigen tests was false positives. The rap against the Santa Clara seroprevalence study was that the test used produced too many false positives.
At least some of the tests for current infection produce false negatives.
Someone mentioned the relatively low risks for twenty year-olds in terms of opening up colleges, yet the risk to adults working on campus (and their families) is not insignificant. My H is a professor (and runs labs with close interaction with students). I, with health concerns of my own, have actually thought of moving to my own small apartment for a few months, not a choice I want to make. Our house is small and rather open, with no place to isolate one member of the family from another. This issue cannot be all about the students.
I see, it was @Twoin18, and you did mention safety/ liability for employees. But would that liability stretch to include employee’s families, who are put at risk? It gets messy from there.
Had we known, this might have been a great time for him to take a sabbatical. Sigh. I bet a lot of people are thinking the same thing, though.
Based on comments here, most professors, if they had their way, would have classes online until there is a treatment or vaccine. (and many K-12 teachers feel the same way). The problem hits life/public health VS economy. I am hoping that my kids at least can go back to campus and have a few classes in person. Learning from our home presents issues of space here. Regardless of how well some classes ended up , learning in the kitchen/bedroom sucks. The focus was not there.
Also I am seeing students/parents wanting answers for Spring of 2021. If hte schools are still figuring out fall, do they really have spring figured out unless they are planning like Stanford to only have certain kids back each semester.
The schools are going to bring the kids back so that they can get room and board money. If things get bad they will go to SIP and all classes will be online. Food will have to be pickup only at set times. Not ideal. I think this will vary between regions and Schools in the US, noone is going to know how this will turn out until at least middle of Sept.
Well, the news out of Alabama is not auspicious: School hasn’t even started yet and there are five positive cases out of a possible cohort of what - maybe 100 football players? Isn’t that about the size of an average dormitory?