That may work for a some schools, not for all. At my S’s school you don’t need an ID to get into classroom buildings, and if you live off campus you won’t be visiting the dining hall. Even if a prof was giving notice that a student in a certain class was being quarantined and not allowed in class, it doesn’t work if the class is a in large lecture hall and the prof doesn’t know all the students.
I’ve been trying to work out in my head how this will work for off campus kids and have keep coming back to it being unenforceable.
@me29034 I agree that, for the virus and off campus kids, it’s a leap of faith that they will do the right thing. It also seems like, for schools with a large percentage of off campus students, most if not all classes for undergrad will be remote. That keeps the off campus kids mostly off campus.
That will not be effective, and will not prevent spread of disease from identified contacts, which is why we don’t do it that way.
A covid test is like a pregnancy test; it doesn’t turn positive right away. Just as your pregnancy test isn’t positive the minute the sex is over, so your covid test isn’t positive the minute you’ve been exposed.
The point of isolating contacts is not that you don’t have enough tests to test them right away. They might be on track to develop covid in a few days, and we have no test to detect that. They just have to wait. In quarantine. That’s what quarantine is for.
Oxford tutorials have always struck me as similar to what we call “office hours”, only more organized. A professor and one student, each one wearing masks, in an office setting sounds pretty safe to me.
Somewhere between 30% ( for those over 65) and 80% ( for those under age 20) of COVID positive cases are assymptomatic, so I really don’t think there will be many students reporting symptoms and getting tested to begin with. Exposure to asymptomatic COVID positive people may occur at any time you leave your home, so if that is too great a risk, stay home.
As hundreds of colleges find a way to reopen F2F at least partially, I really do wonder about those schools unwilling to do so for their undergrads. I guess we will see fewer applications or happy students at those during the next admission round, and rearranged rankings.
Again: there is a population that some on CC willfully ignore, who are judging using the opposite criteria. I.e. “As hundreds of colleges find a way to protect their students by avoiding a F2F opening this fall, I really do wonder about those schools who are rushing to open and expose the community to a deadly virus. I guess we will see fewer applications or happy (or alive) students at those during the next admission round, and rearranged rankings.”
I don’t think there are hundreds of colleges avoiding all F2F contact and keeping students off campus. In fact, many of the best schools seem to be opening, with a handful of very wealthy schools and California public’s as the exception. Did I miss an announcement of many going online only and keeping undergrads out?
Since much has been made of Bowdoin in this thread, I will add that it is very likely that there will be a spike this Summer in Maine. Maine has been essentially closed with very few cases. Now that ME and NH are opening up, there are many from out of state who will come to ME bringing the virus. Unlike, NJ, NY or MA where there have many a large number of cases, few in ME have gotten sick. This doesn’t bode well for the Summer/early Fall.
There has been increased traffic on 95 in the last two weeks (both directions) and this includes RV’s, people with boats and trailers, etc. People in NE are all talking about not going to Europe for the Summer but going to ME, NH etc. Some have homes but others will rent online or camp.
I would be surprised if ME doesn’t experience a large number of case in late July/August even with Canadian tourists not coming South.
Nothing definitive, @fretfulmother. Though I am really hopeful they go with the Option 3 that appears to be most widely regarded as workable, and one that you and us both seem to favor for our pre-frosh.
I also hope that if they go with it they do not reduce the need scholarship packages and offer some small incentive on top (perhaps at least waive student work expectation?)
So you’re a college kid already dealing with a really revamped college experience. You get sick - not down and out sick but a cough, aches etc. Do you voluntarily go for a covid test, knowing it can mean a 14 day quarantine?
@fretfulmother I don’t agree the scientists and academics making decisions outside of MIT are not paying attention to the science.
It’s a great school but they do have their own issues from time to time including a well known recent lapse in judgement.
They are clearly not infallible.
It is certainly possible to support their approach without disregarding others school’s commitment to science.
It’s not why there is difference in opinion or options. It’s fluid. It’s human. It decision making. It’s complex.
I think it’s more the schools with a heavy lab requirement might look at things differently. Or a larger swath of professors themselves don’t want to teach and have made it known. Or the amount of foreign students and professors. Student preference. Culture. Finances. Review of the risks. And the Latest science. Etc.
Even for colleges that usually don’t have a large percentage of off-campus students, some will have many more this year. At Vanderbilt, the majority of students lives on campus all four years. With the plan announced today, all freshman will be in singles and likely most upperclassmen will be off campus.
Regarding classes, they also said:
A student’s individual course schedule may include some evening and weekend classes, a blend of virtual and alternative and in-person learning, and other approaches.
@homerdog They had already done some housing before kids were sent home in March. All transfer students were told to get off campus housing a while back and the university starting approving many more off-campus housing requests, so S19 and most of his friends started looking a month ago. They have been able to find places close to campus. S and roommate will not have cars and I’m sure many others won’t as well.