I agree with some of your points, but I don’t agree posters can’t objectively evaluate college’s fall plans. I have a son attending college as a rising junior. Both he and I would prefer him returning to campus this fall, if conditions permit. He’d be participating in research in the fall and he needs specialized equipment which can only be available on campus. The aspect of college life he likes best is the interaction with his fellow students, which he missed greatly in the spring. I don’t worry about his health because he has none of the risk factors. However, the last thing I want to see from his college is a half-baked fall plan that allows him (and his fellow students) to return to campus without a detailed and workable plan to deal with any contingencies. The worst case scenario is the college has to shut down in the fall due to a major outbreak. Some posters sweared that would never happen. I don’t agree. Some of these fine colleges don’t seem to agree either. Protection of the health of everyone on campus, including students, staff and faculty, must take precedence over everything else, including classes and other activities.
Am I seeing a call for ‘Colleges Which Got It Wrong in Fall 2020 Bingo’? What would fill in a square? Residential colleges with minimal virus accommodations but which sent students home within 4 weeks of arrival? Colleges which had zero students back on campus yet cheered the arrival of an effective vaccine or treatment in September? Colleges which were too restrictive for their brands to withstand and had to close their doors permanently in December? Or those which underestimated their brand’s value and had way less
Summer melt than expected and had to turn away students expecting housing at the last minute in August?
I would help organize but I’m not smart enough to think of all of the ways colleges will get this wrong in the Fall. But I’ll fill out a card and play, though.
I primarily want to make sure the smartest minds and laboratory scientists who work at MIT, Columbia (feel free to inform me where else) continue to feverishly proceed with vaccines and treatments. I want them to stay open and flourish. I am ok with dedensifying and remote learning in the interest of preserving health and abling our top scientists to move full steam ahead. Last thing i want is for those top labs to falter and/or loose America’s top scientists due to covid running rampant at the university.
I think things have changed a lot in the 2 months/500 pages of this thread. At the beginning, many were promising to do whatever the college asked just to be able to go back to on-campus classes. Anything. Now people are not so sure. Wear masks? No clubs or sports? Limited menu choices? No way!
There have been times I’ve missed reading a thread for about 10 days and it’s amazing how things that were a big deal (“Should my child come home from study abroad?”) were not even a question any more. Of course they came home.
I feel for all the freshman out there who went to subpar high schools. Their transition went from difficult to straight up ugly. Years ago, MIT took a chance on the valedictorian from an inner city crappy high school with good test scores. They bet that I could make the leap, despite the lack of preparation my high school offered. I know they’ve continued to give socially and economically disadvantaged students a shot. Those are the kids who will struggle remotely. I have zero concern that the offspring of the hyper involved parents of cc will have the same type of hardship. It may not be what they wished for, but they have the resources and skills to adapt - there are a whole lot of students who don’t - and I really fear for them.
Interesting question as to whether students would be saver on campus in controlled testing environment or at home. I think Williams and Tufts made the right decision allowing all students to make their own choice rather than keeping certain class years off campus.
I am somewhat surprised so many still believe colleges when they say we hope to have all kids back in the spring, just a few months ago it was we hope to have all kids back in the fall, each school will do the best they can do. My kids school announces plans Thursday really would not be surprised if they go all online, will it suck for my kid , yep but that is the way life is sometimes.
The conflict is between actual educational motivations and marketing motivations. What you write above are purely based on educational motivations. However, many frosh and their parents want “the residential college experience”, so many colleges may have marketing motivations to try to give some of that to frosh (although the restricted experience may be less attractive once the details are known). Seniors, on the other hand, have limited options, since they are not likely to want to drop out so close to the finish line, and have limited transfer options at that stage, so they do not need to be marketed to much.
How many of the colleges that are allowing students back on campus have said that classes will be in person? Living on campus doesn’t mean classes won’t be remote.
And then they will have higher electricity bills every year as long as those air conditioners are installed.
deleted my comment
Oh no. Does this mean this thread is coming to an end soon?
Yes, like every other college does.
If it does, we may soon need a new one entitled ‘Changes to Colleges’ Reopening Plans’.
When I went to college, the dorms and other housing that students lived in typically did not have air conditioning.
Higher electricity bills will just be another thing to add to college costs that everyone likes to complain about.
Some like Williams and Tufts are letting all students back that opt to return with some in class teaching and some online classes. Also, the students will have access to the libraries and be in single rooms. This makes a difference even if online, just being able to go to the library is huge.
Haverford is letting everyone back, 50% of classes in person, library open, off campus students allowed on campus and to use the open facilities. The rules for on campus students are very strict, which seems at odds to me with the ability of people to come from off campus- almost like the worst of both worlds- but that’s what they’re doing.
Wait just a minute! Did somebody suggest that summer in Rhode Island is not the most perfect combination ever created? RI summers are glorious, even in the city of Providence, with phenomenal events and festivals and clam chowder tastings and hanging out at riverside cafes or spectacular India Point Park overlooking Narragansett Bay. The kids will definitely get a chance to hit up some of RI’s famed beaches, have fun weekend trips to Newport, and enjoy our coastal breezes. It is THE OCEAN STATE, and summer is perfection. People absolutely flock to RI in the summers—it is prime tourist season (but please leave your Covid at home). The Brown campus is absolutely wonderful in the summer—New England is at its prime and I’ve always felt sad that out-of-state students are literally away from campus during the BEST months of the year. Hanging out on the main green at Brown on a pretty July day couldn’t be better. I am partially laughing and teasing because it’s so interesting what different people’s personal priorities are (air conditioning vs glorious summer weather), but honestly I’m a little flabbergasted that it would be a concern to be at Brown in the summer due to climate concerns.
I will say, that as they’ve added new dorms, I do think a/c has (unfortunately) been added to many. Nothing wrong with a good old box fan and cold lemonade in my mind ;-).
But to get more strictly on topic, I find summer college terms put kids out of sync and are not ideal. It is true that Dartmouth kids prize their sophomore summers as a great time to bond with their class, but to me I have thought it wasn’t fantastic to miss out on seeing hometown friends in the summer or participating in summer internships (which I think of as typically more fun/social than off-summer internships, as at the larger companies there is usually a good-sized summer cohort of interns and lots of events planned for them). However, this is an unusual year, and if your school managing coronavirus concerns results in you being assigned to take a summer at Brown, I think you should absolutely embrace it and feel your great luck at experiencing Rhode Island at its best!!!
Signed,
Rhode Island Summer’s biggest fan
@TennisParent wrote:
Yes, and it’s been an eye-opener (upstream, I wrote that it was like watching covers being pulled off) to see how limited the availability of single rooms are, even among very wealthy colleges. You can count them by the percent of students being welcomed back: Haverford, Middlebury, Amherst and Williams - 75%? Yale - 60%, MIT - 40%, Harvard - 40%… And, who knew that 40% of Yale seniors do not live within the New Haven campus?
Unless a college can exert significant controls over off-campus housing, letting off-campus students access to the campus seems to be a huge risk. It puts the college at the mercy of the virus, regardless how much testing is done.