Camps Kanukuk (82 cases) and Ozark have closed, Ozark ‘for now’ due to Covid outbreaks. Ozark made it about 6 weeks and are not disclosing how many positives.
There is a growing disconnect between the direction being given by the leadership of the schools (President) and the details being provided by the departments who are scheduling the classes. My daughter’s LAC is “hybrid” right now…you can do live or online…but the department for her major is nearly all online, and her minor is 100% online.
She is looking at possibly 3 or 4 hours per week of scheduled coursework outside of her dorm room (aligning with the 95% room estimate above). Schools have intentionally misled students to keep enrollment at all costs while hoping that things will improve. They refuse to make the difficult decisions (like canceling all sports and furloughing the coaching staff). Those with deep pockets are actually leading in reducing costs (Stanford canceled 11 sports today), but at some point, schools will have to reduce staffing.
This year is looking to compound the problems for schools, and their inability to be transparent and practical is going to destroy them if a second wave gains steam in the fall.
I’m preparing for all remote regardless of what the “current plan” may be and if it turns out better than that it will be a pleasant surprise. Everyone hoped the NYC/NE wave would be it and the rest of the country would slide by relatively unscathed…some places still have but no one can predict how things will be 6 weeks from now when schools are projected to start up. I feel like the Harvard’s, USC and MITs are living in reality and the rest are not.
I’m confused. Accurate saliva tests are already approved and in use. There are several places in MA where you can get one instead of the more invasive nasal tests. Is it just that they want to be able to administer tests and process the results on their own?
“I’m confused. Accurate saliva tests are already approved and in use. There are several places in MA where you can get one instead of the more invasive nasal tests. Is it just that they want to be able to administer tests and process the results on their own?
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I assume they see value in in-house testing? If there is accurate saliva test already available I’m surprised it’s not used more widely.
Perhaps some schools take a longer perspective. It is unknown when or if the COVID situation will improve, so maybe we need to adjust to the new reality and learn to live with it. People went to college during far worse epidemics and disasters. Life does go on. It may not be any different in 2022 or 2024.
They have 16-18 students. I honestly don’t know if it’s worth it, but students are coming back to campus. As we see on this thread, parents are not paying room and board for students to sit in their rooms and take remote courses. We have to at least try. Admin has mentioned this more than once.
The schools are weighing many things.
Health.
Employee comments/complaints. Administrative sensitivity to local, regional and national politics.
Protecting the brand.
Reputational risk.
Finances.
Future class size and physical plant constraints.
Student experience.
Student hardships.
International students.
Travel costs for all students.
Holidays.
Quality of the product and education.
As parent’s, fear is a very strong force. It seems many of us here seem to be equating our student’s risk with our own. Or it seems that way.
Also it’s like all the other threads.
We love and want the best for our kids so very much.
We take that baseline feeling subconsciously and it manifests itself into 500 page thread all pretty much a defense of our school’s choice, whatever that may be.
Or for those with children out of the process, this thread allows us to superimpose our overall thoughts on this matter into a thread about school openings. Which is 100 percent ok.
It does all seem a bit predetermined. The hundreds of posts do not really influence us or give us pause to think differently, not really. We like and agree on those that fit our preconceptions.
-All online. Stay home. Sober and well thought out. Clearly following science.
Although science isnt really saying this about this age group at all. We they have to protect staff. Ok. I’ll go along. But online stinks, please lower fees we scrimped and saved for this and it’s hard on us. No Sorry. or here’s 5 percent- off, thanks.
-Hybrid. Clearly thinking it through.
Best of both worlds. No the school is crazy if they think f2f will work. Magical thinking here. Nothing to see.
-F2F. The science tells us this is best. There is not much risk. Life has to go on. It’s the best way to learn and they need to socialize at that age. Others say wait for the big outbreak and see how bad it will be.
-Freshman only on campus. They need the socialization and hand holding. We are paying for these alumni networks as much as the classes.
-Seniors only on campus. This is their last year. Internships. Job fairs. Mcat gmat and lsat. Plus the final year of this journey. Very well thought out.
-My gap year student was clearly smarter than everyone else planning in advance.
If another school chooses differently.
-They’ll see. Watch when there’s a big outbreak and people start dying.
-Oh see it was nothing. Nothing to fear but fear itself.
Gap year - I know they’ll feel bad in four years when all their friends graduate and have to go back for a year. But that year working remotely for the not for profit was life altering.
Deferral - They arent sheltered at home. they have a job outside of the house and will travel. Ok so why couldn’t they just go to school to begin with?
It will all unfold as it unfolds. Humans plan and gods laugh.
On the plus side…no international students will be deported by ICE from my son’s school, IF they can manage FTF classes this fall.
Question for the professors and I apologize if this has been already gone into depth about, what is gonna be different in the fall vs the spring as far as online teaching? I think everyone expects it to be better bc the spring was just tossed on you, but what will be better, will they course change ? better tech, teaching a whole course online vs 1/2 in person and boom welcome to zoom? Are you all starting from scratch and redoing your courses expecting all online will be the normal? Thanks in advance.
Vassar held an online zoom session this evening to provide some updated details and answer questions. I was able to watch the first 30 minutes and will catch up with the rest later. I’ve been interested to hear President Bradley’s thoughts, as Vassar’s plan seems to differ from that of some similar LACs. Bradley had a long career in public health at Yale before coming to Vassar and was appointed by Cuomo this spring to the committee for reopening NY state.
She started with some epidemiology and talked about the very low number of current cases and hospitalizations in Duchess county. The plan for the fall semester aims to be one of containment and she referenced approaches used in other countries. All students are expected to stay on campus for the 12 weeks of semester and they have plans for testing, tracing and quarantining students. Some other highlights:
-Students coming from states where NY is currently requiring 14-day quarantine may have some other options. They have a few proposals into the governor (quarantining at home prior to arrival, testing just before heading to campus and then two tests once they are there for a few days).
-Faculty have been surveyed more than once and about 70% said they will offer at least some in-person classes.
-President Bradley is looking at this as an opportunity to build skills important for adulthood and focused on the “community effort” of working together for the common good. She emphasized that a vaccine may not come for a while and may not be perfect once it arrives, so the students need to learn to adapt and learn new skills for this situation.
-Shared bathrooms will be marked so that students can social distance and kids will be assigned a particular sink/shower etc. and will coordinate with the others on their “team” regarding time of use.
D17 has heard from two of her fall professors so far. They both will do some in person and some online learning. She hasn’t heard anything yet about her year-long creative writing seminar but it has 10 students so hopefully can be in person.
I’m definitely not saying this is the best plan or better than any others. I’m just the messenger giving a report so we can share notes. 
@privatebanker, I loved your post. I guess it is a nice thing that we mostly have confidence in what our kids’ schools are doing, or trying to do!
UC Berkeley is warning that its fall reopening plans might be in jeopardy after university officials reported 47 new COVID-19 cases mostly linked to a series of frat parties.
Fraternity parties are the reason most schools won’t be able to stay open.
I’ll bite. As you note, last spring classes were forced online abruptly. This was done, but was not optimal.
Online teaching is a different beast than face-to-face, and requires preparation to do well. With several months to prepare, we are able to design courses as online courses. This means breaking down the content into manageable chunks (short videos, as opposed to 1-2 hours ftf lectures), creating online discussion boards, signposting online resources, and scheduling virtual office hours for students to drop in. A key challenge is making the information digestible, maintaining engagement, and fostering a sense of community.
Whether everything is online or not is hard to tell at this point. What I would say is that large-hall, traditional lectures will not be taking place this fall, and perhaps ever again.*
- Because lectures were on their way out anyways, with flipped classrooms and more engaging ways of providing information.
No comment
I wonder how many majors that covers. If you back out all the courses that are better taught in person (foreign languages) and those with labs or other types of hands on learning (bio, physics, earth sciences, chem, computer science, art, drama, dance, music, voice, film, neuro psy, cog psy, astronomy, etc.), what’s left? Are the 30% who intend to offer remote classes from the other majors? Or does each major have some faculty who will be in person and some who will be remote? It seems like some students are likely to have a higher percentage of in person classes than others.
@austinmshauri - anecdotally from my parent group and amongst my friends, it does seem that some majors will have more online courses than others. It also seems that freshmen will have more online because of class size.
In the many virtual townhalls hosted by the UofSC president, one of the top three questions always seems to be “what about sorority rush?” The Greek system at heart is all about socializing. I think it will be difficult for those in the system to deal with things like “virtual rush” and “socially-distanced tailgates.”
And yes, it will be an issue for non-Greeks, too.
Why can’t fraternities be shut down for the semester? Besides living there. So no parties or events for the fall semester kinda thing.