I would really hope and expect that as campuses open back up, everyone: faculty, staff, students, prioritize each other’s safety and health.
Have the transfer deadlines passed? Send your kids to Texas! The boys can still rush a fraternity, though they’ve already missed a bunch of the parties so they might be a bit late. The girls won’t have to parade around in the August heat, they can zoom it in, but they better be going to events now too if they want a good bid. The strain of Covid circulating around West Campus is the mild one.
They don’t like masks? That’s ok, they’ll only need to wear one for one or two classes on campus, maybe not even that. It will be forgotten by the time they hit the bars.
Do not be alarmed at the rise in cases or hospitalizations, it is the inmates and the morbidly obese. The kids are hardly affected. Actually, we should just let them all go and get it, then they can come home for Thanksgiving and we don’t have to worry about them giving it to grandma.
Be careful what you wish for, and if the above is what you wish for, come on over.
The news is the news. Whether you tend to look for good news or bad, if you look at hospitalization t=rate by state, you can see which states are rising and which are falling. That’s factual information.
In the NY metro area, definitely. In other parts of the country, social distancing was never a real thing., and they are paying for it now with rising rates. My NJ kid knows the ropes, but goes to U of SC, where Whole Foods is the only grocery store that requires, not suggests, masks.
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Social distancing for our kids let up here maybe six weeks ago but, for many teenagers in our town, they socialized freely this whole time. No spike. We are not “paying for it”. Don’t say that all people not social distancing are seeing spikes. We pay attention to the data that’s published every week for our zip code and county. If cases started to spike, we would reign the kids in more.
The current research indicates that person to person is the cause of spread, not so much surface to person. The people working as cleaners, presuming that they wear the proper PPE, will not catch the illness.
I’m curious if anyone on this thread or your kids are working out of the home right now?
I ask because my D has been in a manufacturing plant going on almost 4 weeks now (6 weeks in GA) and I’m starting my 3rd week back in the office tomorrow. I feel like it’s just not that big of a stretch from going to working full time to schools re-opening. If anything, it contains the young people away from elderly family members.
For me, I was super anxious about going back to work and being exposed to so many people but now that I’ve been doing it, it feels fine. We all wear masks, socially distance, and clean and handwash obsessively. Same thing in D’s plant. Certainly not business as usual, but colleges won’t be either.
I totally understand the possibility of taking a semester off because a student doesn’t like what the experience may be this fall. That’s fair. That’s a choice that families make together…they discuss the pros and cons and help the student decide.
If students decide to go back to school, they should be expected to follow the rules or accept the consequences. As I mentioned, I see nothing wrong with students presenting their data and trying to change what they don’t like (even if I personally disagree with loosening the rules). That’s their right and I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in (again, even if I prefer the stricter rules).
Agree… colleges (and parents) should focus on that. This cleanliness thing is nice, but nothing concerned about and nothing colleges should fight teachers on (like asking them to clean between classes). Still being careful with surfaces, but not crazy. They can have wipes available to students to use in classrooms themselves and call it a day.
@jagrren In theory. Not in practice. At Amherst (which I am aware is not necessarily an accurate representation of all the nation’s residential colleges), many students drink underage in dorms and smoke marijuana all the time, despite all on-campus residences having a rule against it. The rules surrounding underage alcohol and marijuana use at Amherst are virtually never enforced.
I am seeing cloth masks that say they are not medical masks on college sites. But they are branded.
Few colleges can logistically test all their students upon their arrivals on campus, even if they can afford. They won’t be able to repeatedly test all their students at any high frequency either. Besides, testing capability isn’t within their controls, so they can only hint at, but not promise, any testing procedure.
My kids are both working from home now. They will be doing this for awhile, as plans to return have not been solidified. They will roll with the punches. This is short term for my younger one, as she will eventually go back to school. She would not be happy with this work arrangement long term…as she doesn’t feel that she’s doing what she wants to be doing.
I prefer to work from home…my students are actually making amazing progress. I am a little nervous about returning to school (not sure when that will be), but again…I will follow the rules. If schools open, I will be there…whether I want to or not. Our state union sent us surveys, and they will have a seat at the table.
I can’t control others, but I can control myself. I will socially distance, have my wipes at all times, wear masks, face shields etc. It will be ok…despite my uneasiness.
It’s the new normal, for everybody…including college students.
Do you think testing that is done will be adequate?
I understand there isn’t a one size fits all answer… just wondering what others think generally about how useful testing will be.
We are reading about testing and contact tracing on college campuses. What will the reality look like? Sincere question for those who may know, or have ability to predict.
adding: INJParent: thank you for answering.
Hope you had a soft landing… Lol.
My argument is that there are no rules on Instagram. At college there will be rules and some social pressure to follow those rules. RAs will be trained to help you all follow the rules. But I agree no one will follow 100%.
Even where I live high school and college kids have masks. Don’t wear them 100% unless going inside. Just walking around not really even if their close to each other.
Hope at least they will wash /sanitize their hands and try not to touch their face
Even just that will help
Adequate for stopping an outbreak? It will certainly help. I would hope that all colleges will have contact tracing apps that they will require students to have on. That makes the most sense and is easiest and much better than manual contact tracing. Haven’t seen much chatter on this however!
^^^@alh You’re right that there’s no easy answer. Both PCR and anti-gen tests have relatively high false negative rates, and they only tell whether you were infected at the time the test was done (but not after) even if the test was accurate. The antibody test would have been very helpful if the test is accurate and the presence of antibodies implies immunity. Unfortunately, neither is assured.
Yes.
I see it, and I agree with you. I remember when colleges “only” had to worry about enforcing underage drinking rules, seems so quaint now. Maybe after the pandemic they will give up on being the alcohol enforcers, one can only hope. I think there will be minimal enforcement of social distancing within the dorms (they shouldn’t, they should allow students to do what they feel comfortable with in the dorms), but colleges may try to control visitors from outside the college - which is fair.
INJParent, thanks again.
Since I’ve posted way more than my fair share here this morning, last thought for the day…
To the students reading along: why not volunteer to clean the dorm bathrooms this fall, thus limiting cleaning staff exposure? You don’t want staff to lose their jobs, but you could create a volunteer group, a service project, to take that particular risk away from them. It’s a good covid19 story for later. imho
It makes sense to test everyone when they arrive on campus, but even that will be difficult and expensive. After school has started it will be testing students with symptoms and maybe some random testing to help with the modeling. It’s not feasible to test everyone on campus every 3 days.
The best testing method is the sewage. They can accurately detect changes in the number of people infected and if there is anyone infected. Isolated schools could test everyone when they arrive, and once the sewage is COVID free then relax the restrictions until COVID shows up.