I assume rules for other public universities will be very similar, with requirements/rules based on the public health ordinances, no more, no less.
It is in interesting to me that it has been a priority for both K to 12 and higher ed for everyone, teachers and students, to be allowed to take masks off in the classroom. If distancing, ventilation and sanitation to make that reasonably safe, aren’t feasible, there will be online or hybrid teaching instead. I personally couldn’t imagine teaching a foreign language, where it is already hard to understand sometimes what my students, with their varying levels of proficiency and accents, depending on whether they or their teachers have spent time in an English speaking country and which one, are trying to say.
The states in which my kids go to school are still hybrid, so only 10 kids to a classroom, no moving between classes, teachers move. They want to bring full classes, without distancing, back in fall. Wondering how they will manage, with up to 20 percent of teachers excused for health reasons. I imagine a lot of specials may end up being cancelled.
I think that foreign language will be “do the best you can” and the focus will be on reading, writing, math, and science. I hate to say it, but what ever is on the standardized test.
FWIW, I don’t know anyone who has survived a “mild” case of the virus who walks around as though they’ve acquired a super power of some sort. Older people are still in virtual lockdown; younger people are still wearing masks in public. Other than a nod toward previous SARS viruses and some hopeful studies involving monkeys, no one I trust has said definitively that COVID-19 survivors have immunity against future infections nor for how long, even if they do.
I’ve been away from this thread for a few hundred posts, and I wondered what the vibe was now…
At the point I left, about a month ago, things were still really up in the air, but there wasn’t much concrete information about the Fall, as colleges were still in the process of making decisions.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been a bit of a pandemic pessimist, with concerns about the advisability of having students back on campus for the traditional residential college experience this fall. Looking at the current trajectory of the new cases, and the anecdotal accounts of athlete and fraternity infections, these concerns are still present.
So my question is: are people more or less optimistic about students-on-campus in the fall today?
Not feeling super optimistic about the efficiency of testing this morning when it comes to my s20 this fall. He’s headed to UMass Amherst, and we spend summers in MA on Cape Cod. Long story, but I was tested for COVID last Tuesday, two days after arriving at our vacation house (more likely stomach virus or food poisoning, but my pcp is being cautious). I still don’t have results almost a week later. I realize UMass (and many other schools) will be doing their own on-site testing, wastewater testing, etc., but a week to get results? This does not bode well, especially in a state that by most measures has handled COVID relatively well.
I’m a 50 year old woman and I feel fine. We have been social distancing and mask-wearing when required since March. I am quarantining while on vacation as I await my results, and I’m not going to lie—I’m antsy. I can’t imagine being 18, feeling perfectly fine, and having the mental fortitude to stay in quarantine this long awaiting results while away at college for the first time…
IMO, people have had really unrealistic expectations about the Fall almost from the beginning of the thread. Part of it had to do with the fact that the OP had a child returning, or thinking about returning, to a well-known eastern seaboard LAC where the experience had to be nearly perfect in order to justify the COA. But, once that speculation ended and college afer college revealed how limited the actual tools were for combatting the virus (restricting roommates and testing everyone at least once upon arrival), something shifted. People are only now waking up the very real possibility that their kid is probably going to get exposed tothe virus whether they spend another six months at home or a few months at a Division I football university, or a really ritzy residential college. This is called, Pick Your Poison.
OP here. Couldn’t agree more. No perfect solution.
The hard thing for those going back to a dorm situation is this- while colleges have plans, no one knows what it will really be like. Life could be better or worse than what each school is planning.
Off campus kids have a little more control. At least, in their apartments or houses, they are considered more like residents of the town and their Covid rules are generally more relaxed. They can make a bubble with their housemates. Still, for those off campus kids on bigger campuses where they will be on campus for class or food or meetings, no one really knows what it will be like. Maybe everyone will just move around campus in a normal way but just with masks. Maybe clubs can have meetings of ten or less. Maybe grabbing your food and sitting outside with your friends to eat isn’t all that bad. Or maybe the virus will take off through a campus and the restrictions will be even more restrictive with all classes moved to remote and anything “extra” cancelled. And maybe your student will end up isolated in one room for 14 days with someone bringing them their food.
I never thought we’d want S19 off campus and he only looked at schools where housing was available for four years. Figured he’d get plenty of apartment life (with the cooking, cleaning, and everything that comes with it) after he graduated. But now I’m glad he’s not going to live in a dorm for at least this fall. But, boy, I hope spring brings us all some good news - either in the form of virus news or in terms of fall semesters going well with testing on campuses, etc.
S19 wrote out five different options for him this fall. The only one he told us was a non-starter was staying home and taking remote classes. He just wasn’t going to do that. His remote classes in the spring were pretty good but it’s hard to be motivated here with the rest of our family coming and going and with no college friends around. He missed the camaraderie of studying together and supporting each other. Moving in with friends was a priority and, after that, he needed to decide what to do with his time while there. He spoke to some of his professors about some internships he’s interested in for next summer and they thought he really needed a few particular classes this year in order to be competitive for those options. He was also concerned about a January graduation date, something his school has never done. Wasn’t sure if and how that would work with jobs after graduation. In the end, he decided to just stay on track academically. It’s not perfect but he’s trying to make the best decision with the options available.
My new Covid guilty pleasure is binge watching Alone on the History Channel.
Aside from the bears and wolves traipsing around their camps in the night, driving contestants to quit, the biggest challenge seems to be the loneliness. I’m talking three days into the competition, and these contestants signed up for isolation. Granted, these people are totally alone, and totally unplugged, but I never expected loneliness to be such a crippling issue.
Underestimating the isolation effect on the mental health of already nervous freshman would be a mistake.
The State of Alabama is offering free on-line HS classes to its students. Students must remain registered at their local AL HS, and they can continue to participate in sports and ECs at their regular school. Students can take 1 or all of their classes through this on-line system, called ACCESS. Some middle school classes will also be offered. The webpage is accessdl.state.al.us
Seriously, moving into a house on the Southern coast somewhere in the off season with a few good friends who become your family, taking online classes and hanging out together - sounds like it could turn out to be the best semester ever. A bit Decamerone…
one of them could end up writing a novel about it!
Harvard’s plan similar to Bowdoin’s. Only freshmen and those who have difficult home situations will be on campus. No students other than those are allowed on campus. All classes remote. Yet, not too far away, you’ve got Tufts and BC bringing everyone back. I’ll say it again - this is going to be a very interesting fall.
Yale is not looking to house anyone who had not previously planned to live on campus, as they want everyone in single rooms. (Room draw was held in April, so those booked into a double will be moved.) There is this whole Student Compact for all students who are not considered ‘remote’. They will have access to campus, in whatever limited manner that may be, and will need to comply with the requirements of the Student Compact, including weekly testing, obtaining a flu shot once it becomes available, quarantine, and a bunch of others.
The Compact includes this language: “Some of this guidance and these protocols relate specifically to students living in on-campus residences and Yale’s residential colleges, while others relate to all students who attend classes or participate in other on-campus activities.”
So…I am not 100% confident that all of the listed rules will apply to everyone, but they are trying to distinguish between the cohort not invited back to campus for either fall or spring and everyone who is considered part of the local student body for each term.
The individual residential colleges have been hosting town halls, so I may learn more after that.
I am reimagining “the social network“ movie in my head with Mark Zuckerberg living in his childhood home instead of the Harvard Dorms. The movie was set during his Sophomore year and the inspiration for Facebook came directly as a result of his residential college life. It’s not the same…
I found it interesting that Yale chose 60% density and Harvard chose 40%. Both are in semi-urban areas with nearby access to their medical schools’ testing capabilities. I know that Yale plans to move everyone around so that only one person is in a double bedroom, but I cannot imagine that Harvard has that many more doubles than Yale. (I know nothing about Harvard’s residential life.)
Of course, I am in the camp of thinking that residential life won’t last long anyway, but interesting to see the different approaches.
This is just a total guess, but I am always hearing about how rough an area Yale is supposedly located in. Maybe Yale’s research showed that less students would be willing to live in off campus housing in New Haven as compared to Harvard and Boston?
I can only speak for my D20’s college, but in the fall, there will be a lot less of this “off campus” visiting like the way it’s freely done in other non-pandemic years. Colleges are going to highly discourage residential college students from venturing out in the general public and I have a feeling that many students, once in the “bubble” will want to stay within it’s confines.
In addition, these students will be tested frequently, contact tracing, frequent sanitizing of buildings and facilities, and quarantining and isolating as necessary. This just does not happen if living back home with your parents and going out. You don’t have any kind of bubble unless you 100% SAH but there is going to be some risk if someone in your family goes outside the bubble and brings the virus back home. In college, for the most part, students will be with other students who are being tested and monitored regularly, which should somewhat “protect” the students body as a whole.
We will just have to see this fall if this is doable or not? It might work fine or it might not but I give some of these colleges credit for trying to make it work as we just do not know how long CV-19 will be with us? We might be in this for the long haul…
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Princeton University has announced that undergraduates will be able to return to campus for one semester during the 2020-21 academic year, with first-year students and juniors welcomed to campus for the fall semester, and sophomores and seniors for the spring semester. Most academic instruction will remain online.
Harvard cannot be and should not be the lodestar for orienting every decision for universities. They have a three century head start, unlimited resources, no concerns about yield, gap years or transfers. They also have a let’s say, a unique faculty in terms of collective bargaining power. (Figuratively)
It like comparing the pandemic response and concerns around Jeff bezos. Or most of us here. Our children have room, food and resources that we simply think everyone has and it’s not a knock it’s human nature.
It’s really not the experience for most and it is incredibly obvious they are not really the voices that are heard from at all