You’ve put your finger on the key issue for residential campuses.
If a student gets sick, s/he can NOT stay in the dorm. If the infected student lives beyond driving distance s/he can NOT get on a plane or train. So what do you do with him/her?
Colleges will have to solve that problem before they can open their on campus housing.
Since we are likely 2 years away from a vaccine, both colleges and parents will have to find their degree of comfort with the situation or make do with alternatives. Other countries do seem to manage handling risk better. 7 students tested positive at Oxford, and while the school went online for the last term, there wasn’t the degree of anxiety seen in this thread.
Look at the big picture. If the goal is to limit social gatherings while trying to keep the society semi-functioning, then it could be argued that online college satisfies the criteria. Colleges should be able to present most of their classes online, and college students should be mature enough to learn online. This would undoubtedly limit the amount of social gatherings and the spread of the virus.
K-12 is a different story. Little kids may not be able to learn online without a significant help and most importantly, parents rely on schools to take care of their children during the day. Now where you draw the line for K-12 is a question.
I have a hard time sacrificing paying a semester or two of private college tuition while living at home and lacking the social emotional growth that goes with “the full college experience.” By the social emotional growth i mean the following that had only happened while i was face to face with kids at my college: making a best friend, cycling through friends and boyfriends, late night talks over pizza with hall mates, trying and liking a new sport with new acquaintances and suddenly they become your study partners, attending or participating in jazz band or acapella, pasta at a professor’s house.
^Yes, my daughter, finishing up her senior year, laughs when her jazz band director says she wants the kids to play together virtually. Not quite the same experience.
It’s clear we all prefer an in-person, on-campus experience for our kids. That’s still a possibility in the fall. However, if that turns out to be not the case, would we prefer online classes, a local college, or a gap year? These are the choices. Different families will make that choice based on their own situations and priorities.
This is good advice. Flexibility and unknowns are in order for the next several months. If you need assurances and decisions right now, you’re not going to get them. Perhaps it makes sense to discuss with your child- GAP year, postpone commitment /start for a year, community college etc. None of these school administration or government people have a crystal ball. That is the crux of the problem.
The problem has already been solved, do the same as they would do if a student caught the flu.
Actually, @mathkids, K-12 schools have greater risk, because all of those students return nightly to parents/guardians almost all in the 35-55 age range,at greater risk. Numerous scientists have opined that the reopening should start with those under 30 who are not living with their parents.
@GMgiant taking community college classes is a risk if the student is a current senior. They will likely have to re-apply as a transfer student to their college. As for current college students, most top universities and colleges do not accept community college credit.
@1NJParent that’s right. Current college student will have options. Just have to weigh the pros and cons of each. Until we know what all of our options are (which obviously includes what your child’s college has decided for fall), we can’t make any decisions.
Agree dorms are the biggest issue for residential colleges. And large gatherings, but those can be curtailed (RIP sports w/ crowds, for a while at least, and also not sure athletes will be able to travel to other campuses - that seems like a bad idea…)
Keys to having students live on campus:
A rapid test to screen students b4 returning to a dorm. Since testing is still log jammed, will colleges be able to get their hands on rapid tests? Plus, colleges will need to have sufficient tests and contact tracing (ideally an app) on hand to handle any outbreak quickly.
Isolation rooms for students who become sick and college staff to help care for them (I don’t think it should be roommates caring for someone sick and getting infected, spreading it…). Parents may come to help care for them in the isolation rooms or take them home via car. Agree sick students cannot be getting on planes; students must agree to this b4 they return to campus.
For #2, if colleges don’t have enough dorm space for isolation floors, I wonder if they could take over a nearby hotel to have isolation rooms on hand? Given the state of the hospitality industry, they might be able to arrange a reasonable price for the semester.
I think it keeps coming back to #1 (testing) as the biggest hurdle. Since there’s no national plan (don’t get me started), this will be up to states and I wonder how much they will help/not help colleges get access to testing. Will it be a high priority to them? Can colleges (esp. small ones where the numbers aren’t large) set up their own rapid testing pipeline? I somehow doubt it…
@MBNC1755 I can’t remember which college it was, but I was looking through COVID-19 FAQs for all the NESCAC schools and one of them said they were delaying the housing selection process because they were setting aside rooms for quarantine. I suspect that many colleges are delaying the housing selection process to set aside rooms for quarantine.
Something to keep in mind about attending a school whose campus includes a medical center. The school may be less inclined for students to attend onsite if there is a perceived risk of overwhelming its hospital system with students/faculty/staff at the expense of the broader community it serves.
interesting that D17 needs an art class to get her degree and has signed up for one in the fall. At least this semester online anyone taking arts/drama/music intro class had about 1/2 a semester in person. My S19 was taking CPR and got some hands on experience before things went online. So similar to majors that require lab work, what about access to ceramics, paints, etc. Would the student have to figure it out from home. What about theatre? i would think Major plays a role as well as to what a student would do. BTW both my kids schools have indicated their first choice is to return in person. One school has most upperclassman in dorms with own bedrooms or offcampus., but freshman are in shared bathrooms in dorms. The other has upper classman moreso on campus as well in an urban area with tight dorm issues. I think they are expecting a much smaller freshman class though.
@ChemAM the school specifically said they were delaying housing because they were “setting aside rooms for quarantine”? Many colleges and mid-sized unis have put off housing but haven’t stated that reason. Some of them have to consider if fall or spring study abroad programs will continue. At smaller residential colleges, that would throw off housing. I haven’t seen any college specifically say that a housing lottery is postponed because they need a dorm to quarantine.
I agree completely about what would be needed. Especially about an isolation area for ill students but having staff bring meals etc would put them in a high-risk position too.
My question would be with contact tracing and living in a dorm wouldn’t that contract tracing\isolation model mean roommates, potentially an entire hall if using hall-style bathrooms? Plus contact in cafeteria, classrooms, etc?
My DD lived at a residential HS. If she had been positive for Covid19 and they had to contact trace her while she lived there she would likely have exposed most of her hall (and then you have to trace contact those ppl as well…)
Given that we do not know whether the antibodies protect one for 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years, I don’t understand why we would benefit from antibody testing for students prior to enrolling.
I know it’s just a one time situation but Rice has discounted all their online summer classes this year. Normally they have quite a few on-campus summer classes and just a few online ones, but obviously they cancelled all on-campus classes. They are moving some to online though it’s hard to say which ones right now because they seem to be popping up gradually. They are not just converting the previous on-campus classes to online. Professors have to submit a syllabus and plan for the course and get it approved. Instead of $800/credit they are charging $250/credit. The day our stay-at-home order was extended to the end of May our D signed up to take Organic Chemistry since she’ll be at home for a good portion of it anyway (it starts May 11th) and it’s a course she’s required to take. It looks like it’s only offered without a lab (not all students are required to take the lab version).
I am sure they are looking for quarantine housing options, but many of the residential LACs are going to be overcrowded because the study-abroad students have to be reabsorbed into on-campus housing. At some schools that number might be offset, at least partially, due to international students unable to get their visas in time for the fall semester.
@MBNC1755 – I think they’d have to hire CNAs w/ PPE to help care for sick students (bring meals, give medicine, monitor how they are doing). Maybe prior to returning students/parents have to agree to have someone able to come take them home or care for them on site within 3 days of testing positive in order to reduce the workload and risk to college staff?
Regarding contact tracing, that’s why you have testing on hand. You’re right – a whole hall and many/most students in their classes may need to be tested after someone gets sick. This is the South Korean model and it works. The apps are nice b/c it’s more precise – it actually identifies anyone who’s been w/in X distance within the last number of X days of someone who tests positive.
Of course, with mask wearing and social distancing policies in place while students are on campus, hopefully infection spread is reduced…
But it all comes back to testing. . . and it may take until Jan to get such a system in place.