Actually, it seems that asthmatic people are not at higher risk for COVID-19; so, college students with asthma have no need to be concerned about returning to college in the fall.
"“My suspicion,” Susan Dynarski, a University of Michigan economist, wrote on Twitter, is that “colleges are holding out hope of in-person classes in order to keep up enrollments.” She added: “If they tell the difficult truth now, many students will decide to take a year off,” which “will send college finances into a tailspin.”"
^ What some of us have been telling here all along: most colleges simply have no other choice.
“American higher education is about to embark on a highly uncertain experiment.”
If schools utilize the CDC guidelines, moderate to severe asthma IS a risk factor:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/asthma.html
This article provides insight into what schools are considering with regard to dining. BC and NU are the two schools discussed. Some highlights- BC will only open 3 of 11 cafeterias, no self serve, VERY limited menu, seating limited based on state guidance, masks required, mobile ordering. NU is looking at a tier system based on the size of the dining hall. Smaller halls will be take out only. They are trying to determine a safe way to customize meals.
https://www.foodservicedirector.com/operations/college-dining-makes-plans-pivot-fall
Paying for my daughter to live in some hotel an hour’s commuting distance from campus (a la American’s plan as reported here) would be a deal breaker for us.
In general, this talk of students commuting to local universities also assumes students will have cars. Public transportation simply isn’t available in many suburban areas. None of my kids had cars in high school or college. They didn’t need them and we couldn’t have afforded the cost of the car, much less NJ insurance rates. Without a car, though, they could not have easily commuted to the closest state school, our flagship, due to lack of public transportation in our community. In addition, there would not be sufficient parking for all the new commuters, though I suppose the school could rent a field somewhere and shuttle them in.
They could have hot meals “scooped up” into plates by staff (behind the plexiglass). Like in a self-service place where you point and choose what you want, and they scoop it up onto a plate, and slide it under the plexiglass for you. Then de-densify the cafeteria, etc. I don’t see how take away meals (so kids eat in their rooms?) is a great idea.
@xyz123a there’d better be a steep discount on board if choices are limited. For S19, we feel good that he’s always been well fed with healthy food while he’s at school and he can eat as much as he wants . He only spent money on eating out a handful of times and maybe spent $80 on “outside” food all year. If his meal plan is so different this year, the college cannot in good conscious charge the same.
And BC opening only three of eleven cafeterias? That seems like a big problem. What will those lines look like? Seems counterproductive to keeping students distanced.
I agree. This makes no sense, other than to save on costs.
@suzyQ7 when we visited BC, we ate in a cafeteria. It was already set up like a Chipotle for the most part and you told the cafeteria workers what you’d like and they made your plate. Not sure why the college would take that away. Still can’t get over that only three out of eight cafeterias will be open. Don’t get that at all.
^The three are quite large. The other ones are small cafe style. The reasoning isn’t totally obvious, but maybe has something to do with additional operational aspects (the workers, serving only on disposable, I don’t know). There are overflow areas for eating that apparently do make sense. Gut guess, I suspect this will all be tweaked as they go along. Lunchtime will be busy.
@suzyQ7 I think both schools are planning just that. BC said 3 hot offerings with an additional 12 grab and go. The hot offerings will se served as you suggest
(which is how many school cafeterias have operated in the past). The grab and go could be eaten in the cafeteria, outdoors, in their room, etc. NU would have some cafeterias with only take out and some that offer seating. They seem to working toward a more customizable dining experience.
Food prices have increased everywhere-I expect menu options will reflect that, and perhaps portion control as well.
Makes sense. “Chipotle” style is a good term. Not sure why we are seeing so chatter from some of the other colleges saying that meals will be take away only - Chipotle style would work just fine. Pretty much every state will be open for de-densified indoor dining by next week, so they could go this route without too many issues. They will probably ask students to keep eating time to as short as possible.
Some of these comments about commuting made me think of the students I have taught, at several different NJ colleges: two private, one public. Each has a mix of commuting and dorming students. Some are lower income, but many are middle class, some UMC, but all are families who have chosen this to save expenses, or just personal preference.
Here’s what I have learned from my commuting students:
Many with cars commute an hour each way, depending where in the state they live, and what time of day. Additionally, parking itself can add another half an hour.
And car costs plus insurance do Not cost nearly what a dorm does, even in New Jersey.
Many, especially low income students, use public transportation. I actually had one student tell me he took a bus into NYC each day, then back out to the college, because intra-state transportation didn’t easily connect the two locations.
Many students who have to change buses, trains, or both, tell me a commute can take two hours. This is truly not uncommon. They do a lot of work on the fly. They are resourceful people.
My point is: commuting for “local” students is not fun, but not certainly doable.
There is such a tendency on this thread to object to EVERYTHING, that I do wonder what you all would do about all the moving pieces if you were in charge. Maybe that should be a thread! 
Is a parent allowed to pick up and take their kid home if they have covid? What if they are suffering from a case with symptoms of intermittent fever and breathlessness?From some of the policies i read, it seems the student must stay in the college provided isolation. As a mom I wouldnt be able to bear it if i couldnt come get my kid and take care/check up/ provide for them.
If they are having trouble catching their breath or spike a high temperature is their only choice to go to the ollege health service or hospital or call 911? Or be in the college covid accommodation?
Sometimes, when i read about college’s covid isolation policy they seem to take the feeling out of the fact that these covid kids may not be doing OK. If they feel helpless and rotten and scared what are they to do?
I am sure schools would be happy if COVID positive students vacated their college premises voluntarily. One less thing to take care of.
I don’t know the answer to this, but it’s a fair one to ask colleges.
It seems many parents and their college students are not necessarily considering that if the student gets sick with covid-19 it could be a bad situation…not for many given covid-19 stats in this age group, but you don’t always know how the disease will progress at the individual level.
In the US especially, this is a very difficult situation, all around. Because of our overpriced, over perked, over involved college model - the wishes of the consumer are more of a factor than they are in other countries (especially for colleges that are not HYPSM). There are so many less issues that universities in other parts of the world have to deal with right now: Meals - not my problem, kids get their own meals, housing (for the most part) - not my problem, kids procure their own housing, sports - what sports?.. etc. All they have to worry about is class instruction, and since most lectures are in huge auditoriums, online viewing of the lecture vs in person viewing of the lecture, doesn’t really change much regarding the experience.
@homerdog @suzyQ7 I think the three cafes that they are opening already support the large majority of the dining, but it is a big concern for me as well - as is no customized options. They did indicate that they would be opening other cafes in phases if the public health situation allows.
The dining experience at BC is very different than that at my son’s LAC with is just like Bowdoin’s. He swipes into the cafe as many times as he wants and eats as much as he wants each day. No limits. At BC you pay for what you eat. There are several plan options for students. It has never been an all you can eat plan. I don’t expect to see any board discounts, unfortunately.
As this article is not from BC, but in a trade journal for the food service industry, I am interested to see how BC communicates this information to families.