Potentially some good news for us here in Ontario. The provincial government has just announced that they have developed a plan that will allow the resumption of some in person courses for the summer semester (begins end of June). The plan for the fall is for all students to have the opportunity to attend either via virtual learning, in-class instruction, or hybrid formats. DS’s school had already announced that the majority of courses in the fall would be online only. I’m hoping that this new announcement will make it more likely that they will be offering more courses F2F come September.
Apologies if this has been posted already. Our kid who is beginning grad school at MIZZOU says she received an email saying classes will resume in person in August following the existing schedule. I don’t have any other details.
Nope. But it’s coming soon. Very soon. Stay tuned.
They put out the same ideas as most colleges but the concrete stuff is coming.
Ours said June 15. We shall see.
Our union has weighed in with what they want. They represent 37,000 faculty and staff, so it behooves the State to work with them.
Nothing quite like a little leverage.
UNC is having a webinar with students. professors, public health experts, top infectious disease specialists, etc. They said it’s too early to know what will happen…exactly…but they want input from everybody and they want a discussion on what needs to be done to maintain safety.
Wait until the teachers unions weigh in for k12. In some states they are very powerful.
Oberlin has announced its plans for 2020.
They will have a three semester school year, with students attending two of the three semesters. First and fourth years will be on the traditional calendar with second and third years being divided among the other semesters.
This will enable every student to have a single room. The college-owned hotel will be reserved for quarantine housing.
No fall or spring breaks. First semester ends at Thanksgiving with remainder done remotely.
The traditional “January” term will take place in August.
Classes will be spread out over a longer day and may spill over into Saturdays. Small classes in person; larger offering hybrid or online.
All members of the campus community will be provided cloth masks and will have rules to follow about wearing them. Daily self checks, including logging temperature will be complemented by periodic testing and tracing, when required.
Dining arrangements still being hammered out with some in person dining and some dining to go.
There will be accommodations for students (and presumably faculty) who prefer remote instructional delivery.
UConn announced that they will be going back in the fall today; students living on campus must arrive two weeks before class to quarantine, dining will be takeout only, and masks must be worn in all common spaces including classrooms. Part of the announcement said, “Our residence halls in both Storrs and Stamford will open, but with reduced density, and a new housing assignment process. Students do not need to reapply for housing. We will also set aside dedicated space should we need to isolate any students during the semester who fall ill.” They have yet to announce how they plan to reduce density in housing since typically there isn’t enough on campus housing for students who want to live on campus.
Agreed, but their opinion will matter less if the school district can’t afford to open (without additional Fed funds) because implementing CDC guidelines costs $$$.
In Illinois, Chicago’s mayor said the other day that the budget shortfall now stands at $700M mostly do to loss of tax revenue. It’s difficult to see CPS opening for f2f this fall given the monetary constraints, and increase in costs (more busses, smaller classes which require more teachers, etc.). Perhaps another round of fed funding is coming for K-12 schools, who knows…but some school districts go back in 8 weeks (early Aug) in Illinois, so it better get here quickly.
You think CPS will be online or not open at all?
The UConn plan is interesting, and I’m sure the quarantining for 2 weeks before school will add some level of safety. But it is interesting to picture—what will the kids do during those 2 weeks with no classes and no jobs? Are they meant to stay in their single rooms alone all day? My kids work in the summers (also during the school year—but far fewer hours then and so summer is their primary earning time); their bosses will be very bummed if they have to leave for school 2 weeks earlier and shirking out of time they committed to be at their jobs, and obviously they will have less spending money. I certainly wouldn’t complain—my kids will be very excited if their school finally announces they are returning in person, so it would be worth it to them, but there are ramifications for their workplaces and their pocketbooks if that is to be their plan.
@twogirls wrote:
This is an interesting situation because North Carolina (also, home state for Duke) is currently undergoing a spike. Not just a spike in cases, but in hospitalizations which is a non-moveable target. This may be the first test case of whether a college or university can open in the face of a Second Wave of deaths in its immediate neighborhood.
Just edited…I expect they will be open, just hard to see how it would be f2f.
I hope the feds come thru with more money so all k-12 schools can open for f2f instruction, at least for a few days each week for a given student. If students can’t go to school in person obviously there are many downstream effects to that.
@mamaedefamilia so Oberlin will have a summer semester for the sophomores and juniors? Sorry if I missed that part. Bummer for juniors (and really for sophs too) who need to work in the summer and/or were planning on that all-important junior year internship. I guess they could try to work to make some cash during whichever semester they have off but lots of jobs more available in the summer and those internships are specific to summer before junior year. I also wonder about athletes. They would need to be there for their sport…or maybe sports will just be a no go.
I’m afraid more LACs are going to do this. With very little housing to choose from off campus, it’s hard to socially distance in housing.
If most of the deaths continue to be in congregate living situations,as is currently the case in NC,I doubt it will affect school openings at all.
@roycroftmom Agreed. I think at this point, there are very few things that could affect school openings.
D1 schools seem to be operating on the assumption that there will be sports in some form or another. Stanford, UMass, and others that have outlined plans for only some students to be on campus have included athletes among high priority groups. I know several programs already have protocols set up to bring back fall athletes. We’ll see how it goes…
@roycroftmom wrote:
The State of North Carolina just told the Republican Party to shutdown the f2f portion of their convention even before the news of this recent outbreak. What makes you think they’re incapable of telling their state flagship university to do the same thing?