I don’t know what colleges will do…exactly…but I do know what my recent college grad does. And I know what she will do when she heads back to school.
She wears a mask and maintains social distancing when out.
She socializes with friends outside, and she has friends over who have either had the virus…or who live alone and have agreed to maintain a certain social bubble.
I don’t expect this age group to isolate by themselves forever. I expect them to take careful and realistic precautions, as I will do when I am around them (eventually I would like to see my kids…it has been almost 4 months).
My guess is the no outside visitors to dorms rule has something to do with contact tracing and higher risk of spread in dorms. Dorms are the most likely vector for the virus because of being indoors for long periods of time leads to the necessary viral load for infection. This strategy may limit an outbreak to one dorm rather than spreading it throughout all the dorms. Students attend classes for shorter periods of time while wearing masks and keeping 6 feet apart.
This is unfortunate for returning students who will not live in the same dorm as close friends or their significant other. However, if students stay home they will not be seeing their college friends at all. My son is at Northeastern where students need more flexible friend groups due to the coop rotation. So, students do manage when they don’t get to be with their besties every semester.
So what will your D do on campus? She will be able to be in her room (or apartment or house) with her roommates if she has some and they won’t be wearing masks or social distancing right? And then, for every other person she knows or sees or meets, she’s going to stand six feet away with a mask on?
If she has a situation where she can be with friends in a place she lives and be without masks then she’s ahead of the game compared to kids in W&M’s dorms. Those kids have no one to be with like that.
I think your expectations for kids in dorms are unreasonable. And make no sense if faculty are allowed to go out in the world, be with their families in their homes and just follow the rules of their state which be way less than the rules that W&M expects in their dorms.
There are always buildings that have rooms in them. I bet ya they will open up more rooms to allow students to get together and do homework. This will be school specific. At Michigan there are tons of places to go study. I am sure most schools have those places also.
BUT… the kids will most likely do groups things online
Let’s be real here for a moment. They are doing this now anyway. At least my kids are. My son’s group meetings for his organization the board meetings they have are twice a week for the last 3 years. Sure once in awhile they meet at a restaurant or at someone’s apartment for a pot luck dinner.
Both kids have been doing homework with their friends online also for years. This is nothing new during the school year!!
Maybe labs will remain open, large auditorium, spaces that weren’t used for studying previously might be used now. Schools /students might need to get creative a bit also.
For freshman they really won’t know any different. This is their new normal. It’s everyone else that will see the changes. Might have to wait in line longer for that second slice of pie ?.
The box lunch /dinner might be soggy, too much mayonnaise? They burger might be cold? The pizza might be too hard? Your kid might want more sauce on his pasta but doesn’t want to wait in line to get it…hmmm.
The girl/boy looks really cute but can’t tell due to that damn mask…?.
Kids want to Rush fraternities /sororities… Kinda hard to do now… Bet they come up with something else though.
Sports will most likely not be “live” but bet they figure out how to watch together at some place on campus. Maybe large screens outside when they can?
Boys and Girls will want to start a relationship. Holding hands? Doing more? Do they have to both get tested and pass before going further? Will they have ID cards with a "don’t have CV19 boxes checked off?
I am kind of hoping that this will be behind us by then…she won’t be on campus this fall. When she returns to school…if this is still going on…I expect her to do her best. It won’t be perfect, and it’s not realistic to think it will be.
My other kid traveled the hot zone for months, on the trains…without a mask.
I think this age group, for the most part, will be fine if they contract this virus (there are exceptions). I also don’t think it’s realistic to think college students will sit alone in their dorms…nor should they. I do think they should try to follow the rules…but I understand that they might not. Will there be consequences? Maybe…but that’s life and a lesson to learn.
I guess what I am trying to say is that there is no perfect plan.
I am more concerned for people in my age group (not saying younger people won’t get very ill) but like I said…I will take proper precautions. When (if schools open) I return to work I will wear my mask and face shield, sit near windows, and maintain adequate social distancing.
Faculty generally don’t live dorms. The few who do would presumably follow the same rules. They also have to social distance among themselves and with others. So I don’t see any special treatment for the faculty.
I teach in a high-achieving district in CT. I was expected to teach 2-3 recorded lessons per week for each subject I teach, run “office hours” 3x per week to support kids, hold multiple class meetings for social-emotional connection per week, report out progress/engagement/work completion to parents, and attend multiple meetings per week for curriculum, special ed, on and on and on and on. It was tough for a lot of reasons. I ended most days with a massive migraine from being on screen. I have two HS kids who handled their work but still needed structure and support from us. I’m thrilled that the year is over. I worked harder than I usually do in some ways, so hearing that there were teachers going virtually nothing? I can’t believe that’s the norm, but maybe I’m wrong?
@1NJParent I guess I’m just talking about how the virus could be spread through campus and how expecting those in the dorm to keep their rooms to themselves is expecting them to do something way different than faculty. Faculty will go home to their house. Be with spouses and kids who have been somewhere all day that is not the college campus. They’ll get to go home and be with them, get their hugs and intimacy with their family and then bring those germs back to campus. Kids get none of that. Not good for their mental health.
If anyone wants to argue that faculty will be masked and socially distanced on campus so they won’t bring the virus there, then kids should be allowed to have visitors to their rooms. It’s the same thing. Faculty with the family. Kids with their friends.
Why are people getting worked up about not having guests in dorms? That’s a good rule to start with since there are very few places in the US where socializing outside won’t be feasible most of the time in August. Tent manufacturing and rental will have a boom year.
By October when it starts to get colder either things will have started to improve and restrictions can be eased or it will have got worse and lack of guests won’t be the biggest thing for students to worry about.
I find working from home to be much, much harder than being in school. 35 zoom sessions per week, not including regular staff meetings and meetings with my department. Add to this the paperwork, phone calls, and planning…and I end each day with the same migraine as CTCape.
Honestly…at the end of the day the school will make the rules. The students will have to follow them or risk any consequences…or take some time off, transfer etc.
Things are not going to be normal for quite some time, and we have to accept it.
I had a church group that functioned as a book club (we read, Diamaid McCullough’s “Christianity: The First 3,000 Years” together;) a virtual cocktail party that met every Sunday; one actual roof party; and an old-fashioned idea called, The Phone Call that got dusted off for the duration. And, it’s funny how the latter evolved: very often we texted each other first, to nail down when would be a good time to call since Americans have grown out of the habit of actually answering their phones.
Sometimes lately I wonder where the day went and realize I was on the phone four hours: siblings, kids, friends. Very nice.
I haven’t seen anyone face to face but husband since 3/11. And my masked friend at the food co-op who waves at masked me through the car window before putting groceries in my trunk…
@1NJParent so students who are paying for this education should be forced to maintain social distance from every other student (assuming they live in a single in a dorm) while faculty can go home and have normal relationships with their family and friends? I sure hope kids will be allowed to at least have a bubble of friends they are allowed to be near, without a mask. And what do freshmen do who have not even met anyone yet?
I’m beating a dead horse at this point and yes overthinking it, but seeing W&M’s expectations set me off. @3SailAway I hope your D reaches out to W&M and asks questions about this to get clarification. Find out if she really is expected to stay six feet and masked away from her friends.
Apparently Zoom Fatigue is a thing. D was just home for a week, working from her room. She hates WFH and is looking forward to returning to her office. I was not on with my students enough while the semester was still going on in order to have that as a problem, although certainly there were other issues.
@homerdog As parents, shouldn’t our first priority be the health and safety of our kids? Having a more normal social relationships would have to take a backseat, wouldn’t you agree? It isn’t a normal year and some sacrifice would have to be made, unfortunately. I understand the monetary issue and I’m sympathetic to it. I’m not sure about Bowdoin, but at my son’s college, the college spends significantly more per student than the full tuition. I’m okay getting a bit less in return this year.
I completely get it, @homerdog , I think it’s overregulation too. I feel a similar way about Grinnell’s plan with regard to it just “set[ting] me off”.
@TheVulcan I think Option 1 is much better than Option 3; did they give any reasoning why they preferred Option 3? Are they asking students for their opinion on these five option?