Northeastern really dragged their feet on their decision. Students returned to campus after spring break the weekend of March 8th, classes resumed, then went online, and I forget the sequence, but the final campus closing struck me as late.
Yale emailed students the Monday before their spring break, so Mon, March 2nd, suggesting they bring home any important materials they might want with them in case their return to campus was delayed. They also suggested that students bring home anything they know they won’t use for the remainder of the term. Many students ignored this advice, resulting in the university having to mail items back to students. They cancelled all music/performance group travel on March 5th, leaving students scrambling to book travel home instead.
The university took advantage of the two week spring break to slow roll their online decision, finally announcing on March 11th that instruction would be online.
At least for Yale, I do not see them assuming the responsibility of residential life this fall. I realize this has been debated for 45 pages, and I have nothing new to add other than my own skepticism.
Why must everyone always do something in particular? My kid (2020 kid who always planned a gap year for no other reason than she’s young for her grade and we don’t want her to move away to college at 16) will read, watch tv, sing, work- if she can- she had three jobs pre-covid, dance- even if it’s still over zoom, help around the house, and spend quality time with her family in a way that will never be afforded to her again. She doesn’t need or want an internship or to study something new, or to beef up her resume in any way whatsoever. She is just gonna… chill… and I know that’s anathema to this board in general, but she’ll head off to college in 2021 hopefully refreshed from her break from school (though she’s taking two community colleges classes online for fun next year, one per semester, already approved by the college where she’s gapping and already registered for the first), and hopefully starting in a more stable time. As a dance major, online college isn’t what she planned for her four year program. Though zoom works for now- and we happily pay her studio for the classes- it’s obviously not workable for a performing arts major, and those dance classes start day one. Before that actually, as dancers at her school come to campus early to start.
Paint. Write a novel. Start a website or blog. Take up photography and get good at it. Train for and run marathons. Hike the Appalachian Trail. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Famed TV journalist Eric Sevareid completed a 2000 mile canoe trip across Canada as a young man fresh out of high school. He then wrote a book about his adventure. There are so many things that could be done.
After 45 pages, it’s obvious that different families will make different decisions regarding the fall semester/quarter, based on their own different situations and priorities. It’s also likely that different colleges will make different decisions for the fall based on their own different situations and priorities. One size doesn’t fit all. Let’s all hope the virus will go away by then so we don’t have to make that difficult choice.
Northeastern, BU and BC all closed on Wednesday March 11th. Harvard closed on Monday March 9th. I don’t seee how you can call that “dragging their feet”.
@TomSrOfBoston Harvard closed the morning of Tuesday March 10. Amherst closed the night of Monday March 9, and they were the first to close in the state of Massachusetts.
I think part of the confusion is when classes were cancelled vs when students were told to pack up and go home. I remember Harvard and Amherst sending students packing early. But Northeastern students moved out a week or two later, though classes were canceled earlier.
I had wondered if perhaps the Mass state health or ed dept made a dramatic order or “recommendation” directly to the colleges on the 9th, with a short deadline. Colleges couldn’t announce a plan until they had one, e.g. resources lined up (or not) for move out (or not), what students could stay. In the moment, Harvard’s announcement felt abrupt and they took some heat for how they went about it, but that turned out to be quite a week for all.
I think that getting back on campus is less a function of colleges’ individual approaches than what, exactly, their state governments will allow and when.
Northeastern and BU initially allowed students to stay on campus but encouraged those who could to go home. And most of them left. A week later that MA public health authorities advised them to empty out.
@evergreen5 I agree. Until there are some decisions about what “phase” each state is in, I don’t see how colleges can make decisions about having kids on campus. Parents and students are just going to wait and see how it goes. It will be interesting to see when colleges make decisions. Maybe they will have to have been in phase two for a certain number of weeks or maybe well into phase three. We have no precedent for this!
What are you all planning to do if going back to campus is optional? I know that my D19 will be going back and we’d be willing to sign any type of liability waiver they want to enable him to do so. He badly wants to be back at school, he’s young and healthy and the chances of anything serious happening to him are extremely low. Yeah I know that random young and healthy people are getting it, but here in MA there hasn’t been a single death under the age of 30. We are willing to take the chance if there is an option.
^^^it seems that we are starting to see what will happen (weird sentence). The Midwest will come back out of isolation together. The east and west coast also.
So maybe they will announce schools plans, if similar situations between states, on what schools will do. Don’t know but maybe. So in the Midwest I am paying attention to the state schools. If one announces there will be pressure for another to announce and so forth. Like a snowball effect. I just don’t see how they can make a logical and proper decision till Mid June /July
From what I hear lots of Midwest states might not open till Mid May like the 15th or so. Then they have to see if there is a rise of infected cases and so on. There should/will be a slower integration back into society /humanity. But it has to be early enough so people can make travel plans back to school also.
I really think we will see a hybrid of learning and maybe a delay of fall semester like 2 weeks. I would think that can be a cushion for colleges to implement their own plans per campus. They could easily makeup the lost time with redirecting their curriculum and shortening some future breaks if really needed.
I am planning to send my S19 back to his off campus apartment. One of my concerns is the ability to get supplies, but we have lots of things here he can take. His lease starts June 1 and he may go for the summer.
My son’s going to be a senior. He’s going back. We are holding off a bit on housing but most likely will get a single apartment due to this
He can do what he’s doing now still at his apartment studying. He just can’t get into it here. They are piling on the work also.
Northeastern should not have had the students return to campus after break on March 8th. Classes resumed on March 9th, the university continued to report that they would not close, then they moved to online instruction the morning of March 12th (announced the day before), but said that students could remain on campus. On March 14th, they asked that all students depart campus by 5pm on March 17th.
That is what I meant by dragged their feet.
My S would go back to campus, whether classes are in-person or online. Actually, he’s still on campus (received permission to stay because he needs some special equipment for his project). The school has done as good a job as can be expected under the circumstances.
My nieces go to Liberty. All classes moved online after spring break. Unfortunately due to its political history Liberty got unfair press that really wasn’t factual. International students and those who would have been homeless were allowed to stay in the dorms. Everyone else moved out. Their numbers of students who remained is similar to other colleges that did the same thing (including Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, etc). There was one online student who never lived on campus (but lives in the surrounding area) who used the campus health center to be tested for Covid but otherwise there have been no positive-Covid students. My son has a friend who remained so he’s hearing these updates as his friend does live in a dorm.
Do you guys really think that it will be optional to move back to a campus? How would that work? Schools can’t plan for some random number of kids to move back into dorms. They need to plan and would need to know now how many kids will be there. They can’t just say come or not! They would then need to accommodate x number of students and y number of students and z number of students. That’s not going to be a thing.