I really think it comes down to the potential for rapid uncontrolled spread in the dorms, testing notwithstanding. Faculty members who go home to families have potential there to spread illness to, what? 1 -4 people? If a dorm is like one big “family house” then the spread potential is everyone not previously infected (assuming some immunity from previous case). Any case not caught and isolated tout suite could be a serious problem.
What is the point? It seems obvious that the point is a reduction of risk. As mentioned previously upstream, the colleges can’t mandate rules for students living off-campus. But as landlords, they can do so for students in dorms. Every student (and faculty, staff, etc) following the stricter rules reduces the chance of of Covid hitting the campus community.
A good analogy would be the no alcohol policy. Just because schools can’t require or enforce that for students living off-campus who choose to drink in their apartments, I don’t think anyone would argue that they should abolish the rule for students living on campus because it isn’t fair that the students aren’t treated equally.
My S20 is an incoming freshman and my D17 a rising senior, both at LACs for which we are paying more because we value the college ‘experience’, so I can totally relate to your concerns. But in the end, the safety of the students and everyone else in the community come first so I am happy to support whatever measures are put in place. Does it suck that my son can’t have a normal freshman year experience like his sister did? Yes! Will it suck if he wont be able to play his sport if athletics are cancelled? Yes again!
But we are in the middle of a pandemic so they will have to adapt. My son’s school has just announced the move-in date for freshman so I am just grateful that he might be able to be on campus and hoping this won’t change in the next two months.
@homerdog, Colleges can only control the things that fall under their jurisdiction. They have no control over what their faculty, staff, or commuter students do when they’re not on campus, so residential students will live under a different set of rules than the other groups do. That’s the way it’s always worked. Why should the colleges relax their on campus rules just because the local community ordinances are different?
You’re right that commuters will have different choices. They always do. Generally, they have less access to the residential experience that people seem to hold in such high regard because they aren’t on campus to take advantage of all it has to offer. In this case, it seems the commuters are getting a better deal than the residential students. Students who prefer to give up the benefits of the residential experience to become commuters can pursue that if housing is available in the surrounding area. If not, I don’t see any alternative except to live by the rules of whatever campus housing contract they sign.
There can be no “campus bubble.” The virus doesn’t respect boundaries. People will arrive on campus daily, from all walks of life, and they could potentially be infected. Covid literally traveled around the world in 90 days.
My son presents as a healthy 20-year-old rule follower. Last week he was wrestling a methhead gang member in the back of an ambulance. He could be in a class with your kids. You can never be certain where someone else has been.
The 6-12 cohort can get in a whole lot of mischief if the parents are out working all day.
To clarify, option 1 was purely about housing students on campus. It did not have any bearing on classes themselves. It’s been clear that whatever can be taught online this fall, will be taught online, regardless of where the students are residing.
I don’t know if the majority of professors want to be physically present in class with their students or if they prefer to teach remotely.
After reading so much of what is written in this thread, I am left feeling that there aren’t many who live in states that have been wide open. MA is still very closed, but with elderly parents in Fl (one with advanced cancer), I have to travel to Fl to look in on them. Florida is wide open. Inside dining since Mothers’ Day, church inside since the same day. Most folks I saw were without masks. This is neither a criticism nor endorsement; it’s an observation. Why isn’t anyone asking the question, why isn’t Florida a morgue? It’s a state with an elderly population and doesn’t have nearly the number of deaths that NY has. Is it that up north we are vitamin D deficient? Isn’t anyone curious? Florida has rightly protected the vulnerable who are in nursing homes so that’s a big reason for the difference with NY (where they actually sent covid patients back to nursing homes). I look forward to the data scientists looking at the actual data.
In any case, there are a lot of states that are open and people are living their lives. I think students from “free” states will have a different perspective and feeling of what they will put up with from universities regrading their freedoms.
Many NYC co-ops have barred all outside visitors this spring. My son’s high rise rental building will be reopening their outdoor roof space soon. Residents have to reserve one of three time slots to go to the roof (closed for a half hour or hour in between sessions for cleaning) and no outside visitors are allowed. Obviously masks must be worn, even though outside.
I realize these are not college settings, but wanted to provide examples of housing with COVID visit restrictions in place.
Re: the many responses about college students isolating…I think people are all over the map, as they are on this board.
My two sons have been home with me since early March. Neither one saw anyone from March 13th until this past Friday when they finally resumed outdoor socially-distant meet-ups. (Backyard fire pit, outdoor movie–that sort of thing.) Older one has been busy WFH and the college student has been very busy with his research lab, participating in a workshop, submitting a paper to a conference, and so many Zoom calls.
They have remained in contact with friends using online platforms for everything from poker to board games to live movie viewing, and MANY Zoom/FB calls.
I cannot remember who upthread said that colleges will not send everyone home again if COVID spreads through the campus. I disagree. Universities will not want an unmanaged outbreak on campus.
The football teams practicing on campuses now may serve as an instructive control group.
People in Florida were/are still voluntarily reducing their movement (-31% as of 6/2; lowest at -57% 4/4 to 4/10) to a large degree even with lesser restrictions.
https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/florida
The consensus here seems to be that college students (from wherever) at residential colleges (wherever) will not abide by social distancing limitations no matter what.
If that is the case, then whatever colleges do will just be window dressing to say that they “did something” in court.
All the states that opened up a few weeks again are starting to see a rapid rise of hospitalizations again.
No they aren’t.
You need to do a deep dive and look at the actual data. Not just reported cases. I have read that if a patient goes in for elective surgery but tests positive for covid, they are classified as a covid hospitalization in spite of the fact that they are there for an elective surgery.
I’m constantly surprised that no one on this thread wants to hear any good news, or look for good news. I actually find it depressing. There is good news out there. I like to look for it.
Not what I was looking for but… The other articles mentions Georgia increases etc
“There is good news out there. I like to look for it.”
There’s good news out there, many places in the bay area where I live are starting to see numbers drop, but as a Californian, I’m not happy with what’s happening in LA county. I’m going to feel bad for the people affected there, this is an international crisis, until things are better in the US, if not the world, it’ll be tough to celebrate the good news. And maybe tomorrow the bay area will start seeing more cases.
I welcome good news, and maybe I just don’t know where to look for it, but our state (WA) is seeing increased cases after what seems like forever of being very strict. And we are starting to open up further. It’s frustrating that while we’ve certainly flattened to curve, our numbers are creeping back up. I want to believe our kids can all go back to school but I’m just not convinced it’s all gonna be fine.
My state has been opened up for a while now, but with modifications such as 50% capacity at indoor restaurants, etc. We have not had an increase in hospitalizations.
Is this decrease in movement due to less people visiting from out of state this year?
MIT students want to be with each other. Less than 10% of MIT students normally live off campus.
Don’t know why that would suddenly change.
Those concerned about coming will no doubt have an option of staying remote.
And with most classes held online in any future scenario, I can’t imagine what additional benefits living off campus would provide.
Rooting for option 3 here.
https://covid19.mit.edu/recommendations-of-apart-concerning-academic-year-2020-21