Late to this thread so I may be asking on topics already covered but I’m having trouble understanding what are the details of the plans? If my DS20 decides to live on campus this fall and then tests positive and goes into quarantine in November, how will this affect his coursework and academic responsibilities? Will the quarantine facility support full academic participation, such as it is, for an asymptomatic student testing positive? Will tests and papers be delayed for the person that gets really sick? How will food and medicine be delivered? Did I miss the answers to these questions?
We are not back to NYC March in the northeast or other states that had peaks in March. This country is really big. The northeast appears to be on the European trajectory and the other parts of the country that haven’t gone through this are now going through it, because they reopened at a high infection rate - and then exponential math happened. I hate to say it but I think it’s probably better that this happened now. if we had a complete low in the summer we would have a very false sense of security going into fall. the other states are getting hit at a time where there is more testing, and there is some treatment so that’s good.
I’m really concerned about our elementary schools to be honest. These kids have to get back to school. I really don’t know if this is going to get any better in the spring and they cannot be home forever. We have to get the testing figured out - it’s our only option.
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Just curious, the two kids who are deferring, what are they going to do all semester while the rest of their roommates are busy with online classes? Will they be working or something to keep them occupied? If not, I would think that would get rather boring after a while given how much class and studying their roommates will be doing.
@suzyQ7 --I understand where the tri-state area is as I live here. What I said is that we are are back to NYC March level of outbreaks with inadequate testing in several areas in the country. The medical profession has learned new treatments that are keeping more patients alive and allowing more to come off ventilators, but the shortages of every needed resource in FL, TX, AZ and others suggests that we as a nation are not ready for the testing that will be needed to open schools safely.
I completely agree with you about K-12.
Good questions that I share. What are the school’s rules exactly? How do we find enough information to make an informed choice?
Doesn’t your school have a COVID page with answers to your questions?
Yet here is the problem. A school has (some) control over events held on campus, including on-campus Greek villages. At UofSC, there are very few frat houses in Greek village. Most frat guys live off campus, and the fraternities rent “lofts” off campus where they host parties for 50+ people. The school has zero control over these. It will be a Covid-spreading disaster.
I don’t know, tbh. They’re using the LabCorps at-home test.
Not with enough detail to make an informed decision. Endless unanswered questions. Update promised on Aug 12.
This is all speculation at this point. For now, the P5 conferences plan on playing college sports this year.
What you are suggesting is that scholarship athletes are requesting gap years when they don’t even know if the season is cancelled? I really don’t see that happening until and if and when the season is cancelled. Can you imagine if a top Alabama freshman recruit decides to take a gap year but the team plays football this fall and makes it to the championship game! No way in hell that recruit takes a gap year right now before they know definitively that college sports are cancelled this year.
It is officially more like about 12% of undergraduates, based on about 3,600 fraternity and sorority members ( https://lead.berkeley.edu/about-calgreeks/ ) and about 30,000 undergraduates. However, there are also unrecognized houses or chapters which may have additional members.
I don’t think there will be fall sports for colleges. I also don’t think athletes, especially revenue generating athletes who can eventually play in professional leagues are taking a GAP year. They have a short window to play.
Professional athletes are a different story. I think we’re seeing they don’t want to play in the current environment.
Public schools have derecognized fraternities and sororities that did not abide by whatever rules there were, but they sometimes continue to exist as completely off-campus organizations. At UCB, there are 10 fraternities and 3 sororities that are unrecognized: https://lead.berkeley.edu/find-a-chapter/ . CU Boulder derecognized many fraternities, but those fraternities continue to exist completely off-campus.
DS19 has course registration at his Ontario university on Monday. He will be a sophomore Physics major. All his courses including labs and tutorials will be online and residence (which is primarily first year students) will only be available on a very limited basis. From a brief look at the course outlines for his classes the majority of professors will be offering both virtual synchronous and online asynchronous lectures. Tutorials look to be primarily virtual synchronous while labs will be primarily online content. One of the electives he was considering does have in-person labs on an every other week schedule but he opted against that.
With regards to K-12 in the fall for DS21, the latest update from the province is that all school boards have been required to come up with plans for 3 scenarios: 1) full time in-person, 2)a hybrid mix of in-person and online, and 3) completely online. The intention is that provided that the medical advisors approve, kids will be returning to school full time in person in the fall. The other 2 scenarios are back up plans in the event that infection rates increase to the point that things need to be shut down again. There will also be the flexibility of having plans implemented on a school board basis according to local infection levels.
Given the current number of reported new infections I am hopeful that DS21 will be returning to school full-time in person in September.
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Just got out of the zoom meeting for Wesleyan alumni. According to the VP for Finance, Wesleyan is expecting a 90% return rate for enrollment in the Fall. They expect to have single rooms for everybody. They will be tested upon arrival and twice a week thereafter. Masks everywhere except when in own room. An app for take-out orders from the main dining hall is in development. Gym and libraries will be open.
Maybe you haven’t been following the major professional sports recently but the overwhelming majority of players are playing this season.
NBA players have already started to arrive in Orlando for workouts before the league restarts back up on July 30th.
MLB will have a 60 game shortened season starting in two weeks on July 23rd & 24th.
NFL starts the season on September 10th (Texan v. Chiefs)
Pro sports is happening unless things get really, really bad again. Too much money to lose by the major sport franchises to not play this year.
Professional athletes have shelf lives as well. Shorter in some sports than others.
@EyeVeee - I make no assertion that any death is alright. My point is people are talking themselves into believing that students testing positive are at a big a risk. While you agree with that, I would assert that schools can take a number of steps to mitigate or eliminate the risk to professors. I have read that space is the best deterrent for spread of the virus. Can the classroom be organized so the professor can maintain appropriate distancing? I would assert yes - Notre Dame and ASU both have plans for doing so.
My point in bringing up the football example is to illustrate the in a group of blended risks (athletes v staff), there have been positive test results, yet no hospitalizations or deaths. It is a small sample that schools’ apparently can establish mitigation strategies that protect even those at risk. It will be interesting to see how the plans schools have play out over the next few months.
How long does it take to test 2,800+ students?