There are going to be cases! That’s why schools are preparing for that. That’s why there are social distancing protocols being written up. People have to live with this virus. We are all done being locked down and kids have to get to school.
“Likely there will be someone watching the kids on campus and they really won’t be able to leave their room. 14 days in one room? That is not going to fly when kids off campus can be out and about. It’s either a rule or it’s not. Can’t be enforced for some kids and not others.”
Why can’t off-campus and on campus kids be treated differently? On campus kids got food and housing refunds when they closed colleges, and off campus kids did not. The off campus kids had to fend for themselves, monetarily. It wasn’t the school’s jurisdiction. So the off campus students can fend for themselves if they get the virus, and follow the current medical advice like everyone else in that state?
Regarding initial tests for returning students, how some countries handle incoming tourists may offer some clue. There’re several schemes:
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Negative test result within the last 48 hours.
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Negative test result within the last 72 hours. A new test upon arrival but no quarantine unless the new result is positive.
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Test upon arrival and quarantine until the test result is negative.
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Negative test result within the last week. A new test upon arrival and self-quarantine until the new result is negative.
I see it both ways, having a professor H and a rising high school senior who is sick of online high school. But, really, for the first time ever, I question the economic cuts we have made for him to follow his chosen career vs. the lifestyle/money he could have made simply with his undergraduate chem E degree while possibly also have safer working conditions now. I don’t know that teachers or professors make enough money to warrant the risks to life they AND their families must take, especially as they age. Yes, We must learn to live with this virus, but if we can’t wait until there are effective treatments, I suppose many of us will also have to learn to die with it. Of course, health care workers have it worse, but to some extent that risk has always been somewhat known to health care workers when making a career choice (even outside of a pandemic). I know I’m being dramatic, but it IS dramatic. It’s not as if my H, in his late fifties, can suddenly make a drastic career change, and doing so would mean uprooting from the small town life we’ve built our lives around for his tenured position.
@Homerdog wrote:
Yes. But, how many colleges or universities are prepared to play host to a hundred of cases of COVID? That’s just an estimate of five per dormitory. And, taking classes remotely at home doesn’t necessarily mean it will be under lockdown conditions. In fact, I’ll wager it won’t be.
Exactly. If a student is living off campus, the schools relationship with that student only pertains to school facilities like classrooms, labs, gyms, etc. The school is perfectly within its rights to say that a student cannot come on campus and use the facilities. The school has no authority over the students right to leave their apartment and go elsewhere in the city. That would be under the local public authorities. The school similarly has no rights to tell its employees that they can’t leave their homes.
@homerdog I thought you mentioned earlier that Bowdoin was considering expanding housing into off-campus buildings? How can they do that while also having a closed campus?
Covid infection is much higher among African Americans than others. As a percentage, aren’t there a lot more African Americans on the 'Bama football team than among the student body as a whole? Still, 5% currently infected, if that’s the rate, is a lot.
They haven’t really released many details, but seems like these players came to campus with infected. All people arriving to campus were tested for covid-19, and that’s when these cases were found. We will see if it spreads over the next week or so.
Edited to add link: https://alabama.rivals.com/news/sources-alabama-football-has-at-least-5-players-test-positive-for-covid-19
If accurate (in terms of detecting virus in breath), that would be more like “is this person contagious?” rather than “is this person infected?”. That is a subtle difference, since someone can be infected, but not contagious until later.
But then contagiousness may be the important aspect when it comes to stopping the virus from spreading (versus being infected being the important aspect for medical decisions on the individual person). Of course, someone who is infected but not yet contagious may become contagious later, so such breath tests would have to be inexpensive enough to be done daily.
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Exactly. If a student is living off campus, the schools relationship with that student only pertains to school facilities like classrooms, labs, gyms, etc. The school is perfectly within its rights to say that a student cannot come on campus and use the facilities. The school has no authority over the students right to leave their apartment and go elsewhere in the city. That would be under the local public authorities. The school similarly has no rights to tell its employees that they can’t leave their
Interesting. Well as long as the off campus kids pass whatever test they’ll need to in order to go back to class then I guess all is good? If they break quarantine and go out to bars maybe they’ll get lucky and not get sick. Lots of people out now and not catching the virus. If they go out and do get sick then they’ll not be recovered when they are re-tested? In the meantime they could have infected a bunch of people. I disagree about the relationship between the student and the college. If the student is a student then they have a responsibility just like the on campus kids and should be held to the same exact quarantine. It’s likely the only chance of virus not spread IF there end up being a lot of cases. We don’t really know if that will happen.
Again. MO Ozarks and Memorial Day? No spike.
Regardless of our opinions, I expect that the men on the Alabama football team aren’t too worried about COVID. They are young, strong, healthy and likely way above average in stamina and aerobic capacity. They are living with other similar men and have little contact outside the football team… Given those factors and the almost nil death rate among 18 year olds, they chose to focus on the game.
https://housing.sa.ua.edu/halls/ indicates that “The University of Alabama provides 17 housing community options to house up to 8,400 residents.” That is an average of up to 494 students per “housing community”.
Not everyone agrees with this - it’s not a matter of just pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps - this is a dangerous and only slightly-understood virus. I’m reminded of how @socaldad2002 keeps asking, where are the volunteers to get this virus over with, if it’s not a big deal to you?
Also, you don’t get to say that “we” are “all done being locked down” whatever that means. No one is locked down. This “we” does not have the right to force someone else to work under life-threatening conditions - and thankfully, there are enough worker protections, particularly for teachers but also for blue collar workers, that irresponsible plans like this are unlikely to be put into place.
You tagged me on this post but I’m not sure what you mean. Can you better explain what I keep asking, for, volunteers?
I have no idea what quarantine you are talking about. If kids pass the test, why would they be quarantined? If they are living off campus, they need to travel to and from school often on public transportation, they need to go to the grocery store to buy food, etc. They aren’t going to be quarantined if they are negative just because they are students.
oops sorry was it @ucbalumnus - I apologize and it’s too late to edit!! The idea that there are posters on CC who are all about the “get over yourselves we’ll get the virus” but they’re not exactly lining up themselves to make it happen.
I don’t think that @socaldad2002 made that suggestion.
But it does have some logic to it, at least with college students. For those who consider COVID-19 to be a minor low risk infection for college students, would it make sense for college students and pre-frosh (other than those with medical high risk factors) to self-infect (and self-isolate while infected) in early summer and get over it before going to college, so that they will be an immune herd that can protect faculty, staff, and college community people, instead of being vectors of infection? If no, is it because the risk of death or long term disability for college students and pre-frosh is still too high to want to self-infect?
I just don’t think there is any realistic way to police the comings and goings of college students (or protect those who have no choice but to share airspace with the least-careful of them).
@ChemAM Bowdoin sounds like they are looking at a lot of options still. We haven’t heard anything in a while so closed campus and/or off campus housing was still on the table with lots of other scenarios.
As for volunteering myself to get the virus? That’s kind of funny. I don’t know. I’m just doing what everyone else is doing. Masks in stores. Trying to stay six feet away from anyone not in my immediate family. Anyone who sends their kid back to school is obviously “willing” for them to catch the virus.
Look I’m just trying to be optimistic that most cases will be asymptotic or mild and it’s not as transmissible as we all thought. Each week we get new info and a longer view of the whole thing. NY is opening. That will be interesting. A few kids on the Bama football team have it. No surprise. Again we can’t just shelter in a hole until there’s a vaccine that we can all get. Protect the vulnerable. Be a good neighbor and citizen. Follow whatever phase your state is in and hope for better testing and maybe therapeutics and a vaccine. Lots of life activities are resuming and colleges will do the same within the confines of their state rules.