If you are staying home, how do you build the proof of herd immunity some are saying might be required/asked for to go back to school or work?
I’ll admit, nothing about any of the measures taken make any sense to me. I won’t debate them here. But I keep coming back to the class issues that I’ve thought about as my high schooler goes to her essential cashier’s job. Many of the “essential” jobs are low-paying. Yes, doctors and nurses are essential. So are hospital janitors, repairmen, truckers, cashiers and sanitation workers.
It is indeed a privilege to stay home. Even more of a privilege to work from home. Wouldn’t it be ironic if those who tested as immune from the virus were the ones who had been out this whole time?
(My daughter has been working almost 30 hours a week at a small grocery with no face mask, shield or gloves. All she does is wash her hands and use hand sanitizer. She comes home, I hug her. All of us are fine.)
Right, that’s what @brantly was describing. So, a student could do a part time load online in fall, then a normal full time load on campus in spring, then use summer to catch up for the short load the prior fall. So student doesn’t fall behind.
Of course, this assumes schools are back to campus in fall.
My S started at one school in the fall, and transferred to a new school in January, only to be sent home in March for online learning. A very disjointed freshman year!
He is not liking the online classes at all and has already said he would prefer taking a semester off to being online (though he might be good with the 2 class approach listed above). He is lucky enough to have a job here right now so he could use the time to make some money but I would like to see him stay connected to the school and continue his education in some way.
If the school says they are opening dorms and having students on campus in Sept, I would let him go. I would hope they would not make the decision lightly and have plans in place to keep all of the community as safe as possible.
I agree with @Mom2aphysicsgeek that different kids (and their families) have different priorities. In my own case, my son’s entire schedule for all four years have already been spoken for. We’d rather not “waste” any time (he doesn’t even plan to participate in study-abroad at some of the best universities outside the US exactly for this reason).
Actually, what I was describing was part-time online at home fall-mester, part-time on campus winter-mester (January 4 - March 12, similar in structure to typical trimester-length classes), then full-time on campus spring semester (March 15-June 25, typical semester length). Then internships could start Wednesday, July 7, after a 1.5 week break.
Benefits: Keeps students engaged, largely maintains total time on campus, eliminates vacations so students stay in place, maintains universities’ cash flow, keeps everyone on time. Most importantly, gives the world an additional 4.5 months to deal with the virus.
Right. Sorry, I wasn’t clear. What I described was a variation on the approach you described. In any case, the summer session in my variation (or the “winter-mester” in your variation) would be a smaller load than the typical semester-based schedule.
(Still not sure I’m being clear, but hopefully that clarifies?)
Yes, I understand @momzilla2D . There are many variations on the theme. For students who want a summer internship, the home/trimester-type/semester sequence would make most sense. Certainly the summer session 2021 would make sense for those who are not seeking a summer internship. Perhaps the winter part-time trimester-type could have only half the number of students – just those who are planning on summer internships. That would reduce the on-campus population for better social distancing. The other half could do a summer session in lieu of the winter trimester-type session.
Not sure how any university would have some adhoc plan with students just doing whatever works for them. That kind of sounds like a big mess. How would the university plan its class offerings? I would think each university will have one agreed upon plan and then students take it or leave it.
Yes, we have about 100 employees who are now 100% remotely working. Once “stay at home” is lifted, I see the company allowing much more freedom with telecommuting for our workers. It’s not going to be business as usual for awhile. I would imagine that more and more companies will do the same. Obviously some industries like construction, restaurants, manufacturing, etc. will have to be done on-site, but utilizing additional precautions (i.e. masks, more social distancing, etc). We are all going to have to adapt…
Sounds like many posters are prepared to telework, homeschool the little ones, and pursue gap years for the young adults. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. Maybe this is the future-everyone isolated in their homes.
We are all obviously making guesses about what might or might not happen, but what are your college students hearing from their college administration, their professors, and/or students who might still be on campus?
Just this week, I’ve heard two different possibilities from college freshmen. Today, our daughter advised that professors from the large OOS flagship she attends are telling students that one scenario being discussed is for Fall 2020 to begin in October and not in August. Two days ago, one of her friends who attends one of the “Colleges that Change Lives,” said that her urban LAC is currently preparing their students for the possibility of living on campus with very limited in-person classes (like labs) and mostly online learning.
I really wish all the colleges would start sharing their A, B, & C plans, so parents & students could attempt to make decisions about school year 2020-2021.
@TwoHighSchoolers Many colleges have set up task forces to prepare multiple scenarios for the fall semester. I don’t think it would help to know that kids might be online, might start in October or Jan, might be on campus with limited in-person classes, etc. Colleges will likely get prepared for many options but need time to see how things pan out over the next three months to make their decisions. I wouldn’t want it any other way. As quickly as things are moving, I’d want colleges to make the most informed decision as close to the start of school as possible.
We are hearing “preparing for students to be on campus” which of course they are but they are also quietly preparing for online learning or some hybrid solution- they just aren’t able (or willing) to share those plans as of yet.
Colleges can’t decide till they have a better grasp of the situation. They might not know till June /July. From everything I am reading think of a hybrid situation of some type. Just talked with b a friend that teaches in Arizona and he was on 4 zoom meetings about this today. The schools aren’t just sitting idle.
@knowstuff right. And they don’t have some secret plan that they aren’t sharing with students. They are still working on figuring out the best options as the virus situation evolves. If anyone wants to know how a school is progressing through their decision making, one can google the school name and “coronavirus” and find the messages that the college (usually the president) is sending out to students and parents. Most are updating their message at least weekly.
We are just going with the flow kind of people. If my kiddo school opens for in person she will go, if they opens online she will deal. There is no back-up plan here.
However, a scenario some has brought up here that I haven’t thought about. That they may send their kid to their college town to take online course from there. I love having my girl around, we get along so well. But I will give her that option if she wants to live by her school. We will have to wait and see.
Given the insufficient information, colleges are forced to prepare various different actions for various scenarios – and may run out of time before being forced to choose one when not enough information is available to make a well-informed decision.
Well one thing I read about 150 post back that I did not see brought up again was the colleges insurance companies will not want them open, a thought I did not think about ( sorry to who ever brought it up and did not get a shout out from me)
Colleges are a business and they will be open is some form in the Fall, they have to be in order to bring in cash, cash they will need to survive, very few schools have endowments of 500 million and up, so we have about 4000 colleges in the US and not one plan is going to work, some schools use a quarter system like Drexel for instance so starting late really does not work for those schools. Colleges want the HS class of 2020 to commit May 1 or June 1 so they have a rough idea of how much money they hope to collect for this year, yes summer melt will be higher this year that is a fact. The real truth is colleges will not know until they open their doors either on campus or on line how many kids they will have. IF BU ( using as a example) announces aug 15 sorry folks we can not pull off opening our campus until Jan, they will still offer classes on line, and if they did not where is the students gonna go? most schools will be filled by that time . There is no real advantage to being upfront with you plans until you have an idea how many freshman you are getting, the other classes have skin in the game at BU the freshman class has very little compared to kids who have been there 2 years for example. SO I have no doubt schools will be open in Sept and it is because they have to be. Schools can not risk it from a business standpoint. The easiest way for colleges to survive is to do online in the fall and have tuition coming in and they may be able to keep some of their international high paying students sending cash. While a Jan opening may keep things more normal for students in that they all start on campus together , it is bad business for the colleges and let’s be honest “Big College” looks out for themselves first, they have no issue will if kids can really afford college, take loans, and parent plus loans great no problem, really not our problem if you can not pay them back. I do not know to many universities that will have their endowments give out student loans.
Will I like paying for my freshmen son full tuition if he is learning from my living room, nope not at all but if it is for one semester I can live with it. To expect a small LAC to have the same plan as a large state flagship on the other side of the country is foolish. I think dorms will be closed and campus will be closed in the fall with another semester of online learning for most schools bc it is the easiest and safest option for schools. Will some schools open their dorms , more than likely bc the need the money from it and they hope they will be able to poach kids to go there. Some will open bc they are in less effective area and will try to manage the risk but most will stay online bc if it the safest business option for them. It buys them time and keeps some cash coming in.
I really can’t see how colleges could be held liable for anyone getting the virus. First of all, there is zero way to prove how or from whom an individual caught it. Second, unless a college is intentionally defying a government order to stay closed, the college is not negligent because the student is involved in the decision-making as well.