@roycroftmom I don’t know how many colleges had students on their Covid committees but some did including Bowdoin. There are three separate committees planning classes, back to school issues, and budget issues. There are two students on each of those committees. Those students reached out to all students to ask for input. It’s my hope that the fall plans coming out of schools with student input will include rules that make back to school the most palatable possible so that students can buy into it in a big way.
June 15, 2020
Dear Members of the Boston College Community:
We write to you today to provide an update on planning efforts related to the fall reopening of campus and the return of faculty, staff, and students. As indicated in Fr. Leahy’s May 19 letter to the community , the University intends to return to on-campus instruction beginning August 31. Significant planning efforts have been underway since earlier this spring. Within the past two weeks, deans of our eight schools and colleges and vice presidents have weighed in with their emerging plans for the fall, and we have shared updates with our Board of Trustees. While we don’t have all of the details finalized, it is important to provide an update on how we intend to operate this fall.
The Reopening BC website will be the primary source of information for all members of the BC community. To keep you informed of the University’s latest plans, we will also provide a weekly Monday afternoon update via email from now through August. These emails, combined with regular updates on this website and additional communications from deans, vice presidents, and others during the next several weeks, will provide important information about our developing plans for a safe and successful reopening later this summer.
Recognizing that there are questions regarding University operations that can’t be answered in a single email, we will focus today on a few key areas.
BC. Part 2. Sorry it’s long but interesting…
Community Expectations and Personal Commitments:
Education is a shared enterprise and requires a personal commitment from each community member to do their part in helping to limit the potential spread of COVID-19. Consistent with federal, state, and local guidelines, and as outlined more fully in the Boston College Guide for Returning to the Workplace, we anticipate that the University will operate under the following working guidelines for the fall.
Masks or Face Coverings – each member of the community is expected to supply their own mask or face covering, which should be worn at all times outside of private offices or residence hall rooms where proper physical distancing cannot be maintained. Reusable masks should be cleaned daily.
Physical Distancing – all community members, including vendors and visitors, should follow recommendations regarding physical distancing, both inside and outside of buildings.
Personal Hygiene – each community member is expected to wash their hands frequently and properly (e.g. for 20 seconds with soap and water) or use hand sanitizer (with at least 60% alcohol content). Further, coughs and sneezes should be covered by a tissue or the inside of an elbow if a tissue is not available.
Testing and Contact Tracing – will be a central component of our on-campus experience this fall. Further details will be released in the coming weeks as plans are finalized.
Symptom Monitoring – each community member is expected to monitor themselves for symptoms of COVID-19 on a daily basis. Any individual who is symptomatic should not come to school or work and should contact their primary care provider (faculty, staff, and graduate students) or University Health Services (undergraduate students).
Travel – given that all international travel destinations are considered Level 3 by the CDC, University-sponsored international travel continues to be prohibited. Domestic travel should be limited and requires the approval of the Provost, EVP, or President.
Meetings and Gatherings – outside of in-person class sessions, meetings that can be held virtually should continue to be held virtually, and large gatherings should be avoided.
A Academics:
We look forward to beginning the school year in late August with on-campus, in-class instruction, which supports the formative educational experience that is central to Boston College’s mission. Faculty, deans, and colleagues across campus are hard at work this summer preparing courses for the fall semester. To accommodate those students who will be unable to return to campus, and those faculty who are at higher risk for infection due to preexisting health issues, age, or pregnancy, we will offer–in addition to our on-campus, in-class courses–a mix of synchronous remote and fully online, asynchronous courses. Additional details will be shared later in the summer.
The classroom environment will be somewhat different this fall in order to reduce the risk to students and faculty. Changes that will impact the daily experience include:
Classrooms that will seat fewer students – In consultation with professionals from our Environmental Health & Safety and Space Planning teams, we are working on options for de-densifying classrooms. Additional details will be shared in the coming weeks.
Teaching zones at the front of each class – This space will provide sufficient room for faculty to move about while maintaining a safe distance from the front row of students.
Cleaning and sanitizing classrooms – Classrooms will be cleaned and sanitized every night, and cleaning materials such as disinfecting wipes will be made available for students
Personal Protective Equipment:
As mentioned, the University expects faculty, staff, and students to bring their own face coverings to campus. Students will be able to purchase replacement face coverings in the BC Bookstore. Additionally, masks are being procured for use by students in clinical placements and for individuals working in research labs.
Guidance has been provided to vice presidents, deans, and vice provosts about requests to modify work areas to accommodate physical distancing. A working group has been assembled to review these requests and prioritize them in light of other potential mitigating options.
Even under Harvard’s minimum-density model, that’s still 600 tests every 2-3 days, which is still A LOT. I wonder if those tests are coming from the Broad Institute at Harvard/MIT, which is where Amherst is getting their tests.
Hey, thanks everyone for letting me throw my little pity party on the last page. It helped! Your support and good suggestions, plus just getting a chance to whine, everything ;-).
I do think we will be exploring gap year and leave of absence options. Have some options planned for when the final news comes out in early July, so we are ready for anything. I definitely respect how difficult these decisions are for the colleges, and how many complicated components go into the final decisions. Grateful to not be a university president right now ;-). This virus is just the worst, on so so so many levels.
If we come up with some unusually interesting options for next year, I’ll be sure to share. In the meantime, I remain optimistic for successful school years at the vast majority of campuses this year!
From BC:
“Testing and Contact Tracing – will be a central component of our on-campus experience this fall. Further details will be released in the coming weeks as plans are finalized.”
Seems like all the area colleges are really focused on testing and contact tracing (as there should be). They must be working with the state and labs. I’m surprised more info hasn’t leaked out about the types of tests (quick tests, PCR, “breath tests”, sewage tests, etc…) local Boston colleges will be using. There must be a regional strategy forming. @privatebanker do you have any connections in this industry/in the Boston area that have some intel?
What I find astonishing is that 3 different colleges, located geographically close to each other and facing largely the same challenges, could decide on 3 such different solutions, all students and in person (BC); half of the students and online (MIT); and likely way less than half and online (Harvard).
One of the surveys MIT conducted as part of the extensive data gathering they put into their planning and deliberations process was one of students staying in on-campus emergency housing throughout the campus closure period.
If you look at page 3 you will notice that while most students report they are following social distancing and hygiene rules, they also report that other residents are not.
Why, do y’all think, MIT asked these two sets of questions, and which set, do you think, is a better reflection of the overall level of compliance?
@suzyQ7 hi.
No. I don’t directly it’s way out of my professional zone for sure. Lol.
Intel sources I can check and pm you.
I think MIT and Harvard will be very similar - if Harvard goes with Option 2 -that’s 40% in person. These are the ‘we will never lose a single student no matter what we choose" and “we can afford to loose half our room and board” - colleges’. BC, BU, NEU, Tufts, etc, are not in that league and the rest of the colleges in the area will probably follow their model.
Hamilton parents and students received an email today on the college’s plans for the fall. Like several other NESCAC institutions, they intend to invite students back to campus in August. President Wippman stated more details are to follow soon, but these are some of the general highlights:
“Multiple committees are developing plans and making preparations to reopen the campus. Many things will look different this fall, and all members of the community will be asked to accept some level of inconvenience to protect everyone’s safety. We expect, for example, to put in place a multi-layered system to minimize health risks to our community while still retaining as much of the academic and cocurricular experience as possible. That system will include physical distancing, wearing face coverings, diagnostic testing, routine symptom-checking, extensive cleaning and disinfecting of common spaces, and space for isolation and quarantine, should that prove necessary. We will also modify options for housing and dining.”
“One of the changes we will make involves the academic calendar. Our first day of classes will be Monday, Aug. 24 (previously August 27), although arrival dates and times for new and continuing students will be staggered to increase physical distancing. A revised Orientation for new students will be held Thursday, Aug. 20, through Sunday, Aug. 23. The Hamilton traditions of matriculation and convocation will be preserved, but the format will change, also to allow appropriate physical distancing.”
"The last day of fall classes will be Tuesday, Nov. 24. Exams will be conducted remotely the week following the Thanksgiving holiday. International and U.S. students who feel they need to remain on campus will be invited to make a formal request closer to the end of the semester.
This compressed calendar will require that some classes be held on Saturdays and some on weekday evenings. The Academic Continuity Advisory Group has been working hard on developing resources to support both hybrid (i.e., a combination of in-person and asynchronous instruction) and blended (i.e., some people are present while others are engaged remotely) teaching to support physical distancing and to prepare for a change in plans if necessary due to a resurgence of COVID-19. It was a difficult but necessary decision to eliminate fall break. On-campus activities designed to adhere to physical-distancing requirements will be emphasized to encourage students to maximize their time on campus and minimize travel in order to keep our community safe."
@suzyQ7 @ThinkOn I think the medium-density model would have only one graduating class on-campus, because that model has 30-40% density and they will already be at 10% density from the students they will invite back no matter what because they need to be on-campus to learn, and adding one graduating class will increase that by almost 25%, which puts it right in the 30-40% range; adding a second graduating class would put it over 50%. Also, athletes may be invited back under the medium-density model.
I feel like at least in this case, inviting some students back but not others is not nearly as bad as what Grinnell and RPI are doing, because since virtually all classes will be online anyway, it will be much more equitable. Also, they are giving all students the option of a gap year (somebody mentioned that about Harvard earlier). I am also guessing it will be one graduating class for the whole year, and my money is on the seniors; hypothetically, if they invite one graduating class back, it should be seniors.
MIT’s current leading plan has ~60% of the students coming back with two graduating classes + disadvantaged students in fall, and they plan to ramp it up to ~75-80% (with three graduating classes) in spring.
For perspective on how even medium and smaller size, highly selective universities are big business. Profs, grounds and financial aid. Mind boggling.
From the Boston College 2019 Factbook.
“The University saw a $41.2 million hike in operating costs for the 2019 fiscal year for a total of $1.075 billion spent on operations, compared to 2018 when operating expenses cost $1.034 billion.“
A billion dollars+ a year.
I will say, although they lost the last quarter of the senior year, I think rising college freshmen are the most fortunate group of students for the upcoming year at colleges where they don’t let all students come back, because the freshmen aren’t bonded to anyone yet, plus it is very easy for them to take a gap year, and it won’t be nearly as disruptive to their education (in general). Note this does not include rising INTERNATIONAL freshmen, as most of those students didn’t have the option of staying in the country and will probably be forced by the US government to take a gap year.
At least it will be 2 classes at MIT. Just 1, apparently at Harvard, along with enough special students to bring it up to 37% ( 2500/6600). Maybe it reflects a difference in undergraduate focus, since all seem to allow their graduate ( but not professional) students back.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Harvard’s mostly online plan for undergraduates the entire 2020-2021 academic year? Not just fall?
For the undergraduate and professional schools ( except med school years,2-4), I believe it is online. For the nearly 5k graduate students in arts/sciences, they will return to the campus. Many engage in research, or individual meetings with professors. They do not necessarily live on campus, and likely take public transport.
It isn’t that surprising. The richest and the most prestigious colleges (Stanford/Harvard/MIT, and likely followed by Princeton/Caltech) will adopt the most conservative approaches. Only a portion (the exact proportion depends on dorm availability of the college) of their students will return to campus in the fall and all of them will be in singles. Additionally, certain number of dorms/buildings will be set aside to quarantine infected and potentially infected students. Classes will be mostly online unless they aren’t suitable for remote learning.
I’d argue the opposite in that a large number of universities aren’t allowing incoming freshmen gap years. This would require incoming freshmen to have to reapply for admission, something upperclassmen wouldn’t have to do if they took a gap.
Rice has been sending weekly updates to students focusing on different Covid related topics. This weeks was about modifications they are making to buildings. Some things they mentioned are:
Increasing outside air ventilation by reprogramming systems designed to vary air flow for energy conservation.
Enhancing air filtration through the use of higher efficiency filters.
Incorporating ultraviolet-C lights into heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to kill or inactivate microorganisms.
Cleaning of HVAC air handling systems.
Flushing domestic water systems.