And a large majority of Duke’s faculty opting to teach remotely.
Does this mean the current plan is for freshmen and sophomores to only be on campus in the fall and then move back home?
@2ndthreekids Duke has to allow deferments at this point with new info. They should give kids until the first day of class to decide. I believe that’s what Cornell is doing. Not sure how that works with paying tuition but maybe the bills are sent and paid and, if one decides to not enroll, it is refunded. Parents and students need time to figure it out
Yes, lots of moving pieces and situations changing makes it tough! If the classes he wants to take at RIT are online/remote for Fall 2020, would he be able to wait until Spring OR at least a few months to see how it is going? If he is going to be off campus, he can maybe still look for a place in late Sep/Oct depending on conditions?
Not ideal as it sounds like he is so ready to just go and join in the experience, but if well, things are still influx at the school anyway, maybe not that much downside to waiting.
Its tough for sure and whatever decisions you all make will work out! Hoping that he will have a positive experience, no matter the bumps and Spring will be better.
Yes…and since the last day of exams is Wednesday before thanksgiving, makes is super convenient for those across country to move out.
They haven’t billed us yet. For the past few months, Duke said that tuition was pending (told us in March it would be 3.9% increase). Tuition was posted last week -but not announced- and increased 4%.
D just found out she will get a housing assignment on Thursday…she was originally supposed to decline by Friday. She did find out she can defer until Aug. 16, day before class starts.
I know there are moving parts but the lack of transparency is infuriating…the rumor from several kids on campus is that a large # of football players tested positive. But yet they have to have kids live on campus if they want an ACC football season, right? So there you go…give everyone single rooms so that you can’t get sued if your student gets covid from a roommate, but then announce it super late, so it really screws things up for the most number of students. Meanwhile my alma mater is full steam ahead with no de-densification of housing, everyone in doubles or triples… End rant.
@2ndthreekids I’m sorry. That is one heck of a last minute plan. And moving out and flying out on Wed before Thanksgiving? Ugh. The advice to pack light takes on new meaning with that.
All of this news is just so sad and frustrating. I’m so upset for you all and your kids.
The closer we all get to supposed school start dates (be it K-12 or colleges), the more bad news I think we will all be receiving.
Just sad for everyone.
Looks like my D20 will be taking a gap year now and hope things are better Fall 2021 (they extended the gap year deadline to 8/16).
She is disappointed but pragmatic that she wants as much of a 4-year experience as possible and just wouldn’t get it this year. She’s going to cut her losses.
During the gap year, she will continue to work part-time and save money, take a community college class (for fun) and look for possible research, volunteer or pro-bono work. Maybe if things are better next spring or early summer she can do her Europe trip that was cancelled her senior year.
I have no animosity towards Duke, I think they are trying to do the best they can in a very trying environment.
@socaldad2002 - I know she’s been wanting this and working for this for a long time. I hope her gap year is good. So many cool non-credit classes she can take . … and I’ve heard that elementary kids might be looking for tutors as well because of the spring. Do you know about grad school and Duke? we know two kids starting grad school this year there and I wonder what’s going on with grad school.
None of the upper class packed light because they left all of their stuff behind when campus closed over spring break, though I’m sure the white claws and beer was confiscated, so maybe a little lighter than what was left behind:).
D just told me won’t find out her housing assignment until Thursday, 10 days before she’s supposed to move in. She was planning to stay in Durham next summer to do research and probably take classes. Duke has announced they will do greatly expanded summer sessions next year. If she was going to be kicked off campus for a semester, I wish she had 2nd semester housing instead of first when it’s more likely that more classes will be in person, easier for research planning for summer, and dare I write it, will their be college basketball in 2021?
You have a good attitude. I would do the same thing, no brainer, if I had a first year. But I have do have a bit of animosity because they knew how many housing applications they had on June 18th. There’s no magic de-densification metric that is different now vs then. They could have put everyone in singles then. The right thing to do would be keep all kids off campus if they really feel this strongly about the trends and go 100% online (and even better, cut tuition). But that would mean far more gap years and no football participation (or maybe even basketball, I’m not sure). There are 1,000 schools that did a better job than Duke did in communicating.
Duke made the announcement official with a detailed FAQ. Odd that this info broke on a Sunday. Wonder how this might affect the plans of other NC schools like UNC-CH and Davidson that had planned to bring everyone back on campus.
I have a feeling a lot of on campus housing will open real soon. There is plenty of subleases for off campus and most have their own bedrooms and bathrooms. No school really has answers. and many are changing on the fly. .See Duke.
Pitt has announced its plans. This has been coming out in dribs and drabs over the past week or so but there is now enough to kind of make sense of it (not completely) so I thought I’d post. This is long.
First, all classes start virtually on Aug 19, and in-person on Aug 24, and end in-person at Thanksgiving. The majority of classes will be available in person. All classes can also be done remotely so students are not required to return to campus. This also allows for students to continue with classes if they are quarantined. Masks are required inside all campus buildings.
Dorm move ins are staggered from mid-August up to August 31. Sounds like freshmen are coming first. Some people are moving in a whole week after in-person classes start.
All students will have to shelter-in-place for 14 days before attending in-person classes. For on-campus students, the shelter-in-place consists of 7 days at home prior to coming to campus, and 7 days after dorm move in. Off campus students are also subject to the 14 day shelter-in-place which they can split between home and their apartment as they wish. Pitt says they will provide further guidance on safe travel next week.
The shelter-in-place description for outside of the dorms was prefaced by: “If you cannot follow all of our shelter-in-place protocols, please stick to what is possible. And, if you have to work or be around others, aim to maintain six feet of physical distance between you and others, wear a face covering and wash your hands often.” That’s a pretty big out. It goes on to say to stay home except for food, medicine, and emergencies but they also add “Modify your exercise routines by maintaining a physical distance of 6 feet, when possible, or by wearing a face covering when 6 feet of separation is unlikely” so I guess leaving to exercise is also OK.
The 7 day shelter in place in the dorms will be done with a pod of 4-6 people, so its sounds like they plan to combine dorm rooms to form pods. Within your pod masks are not required. Pods can eat together inside or outside and can exercise together. All people in the pod will move in on the same day but different pods will have different shelter-in-place periods due to staggered move-in dates. The pods with the latest move-in dates have to do the first two weeks of classes remotely. For off campus students, your apartment or house-mates are considered your pod.
It seems like enforcing this in the dorms will be fairly easy unless you have a pod that all agrees to go rogue and not report each other. Off campus enforcement will be much more difficult, especially with the “stick to what is possible” language. A school official was quoted in the school paper saying that they will not be policing this and it will be on the honor system. The school paper followed this with an editorial that said the honor system also says that underage students agree not to drink and we know how that goes.
Pitt has testing capacity of 400 tests per day. There are about 20,000 undergrads. They say there will be testing at dorm move-ins but it sounds like it’s random sample testing rather than testing everyone. From what I can tell, off-campus kids are only tested if they are symptomatic and call the health service.
Well, Missouri State tried to do it’s freshmen orientation in person. Some leaders didn’t wear their masks. 42 people with Covid. Now orientation all online.
@homerdog - Oh no. That’s not good news. Nor a good indication for others following soon.
These colleges had months to develop a plan. Now everything changing at the last minute (after deposits are made)so unfair.
These are institutions that are entrusted with teaching the next generation of inventors, scientists, doctors, engineers, innovators, etc… and this is the best they can do?
Where is the American spirit of conquering any obstacle? Where is the innovation from these premier institutions?
Many businesses have opened in previous hotspots (like NY) and they are making it work.
We need our Universities to do much better!
What if we never have a vaccine, do colleges close forever?
The colleges were all hoping the virus would have dipped by now. That was originally what was expected, remember? One wave in the spring and that wave gone by August and then a second wave in the winter. Well, states didn’t do their part. Colleges need time to plan and most had committees to develop multiple scenarios but, at some point, had to pick one and move ahead. Bowdoin, Harvard, and some others risked it a bit and determined that fall was not going to look good and moved to online early. Some of us were bummed. Look! Duke going back! Emory going back! Why be so conservative in your plan? And now we are already seeing that, if a school could afford it, all online with few kids on campus might be the best call. More colleges every day switching over and it’s so close to move in day.
I’m sure it was not easy for those schools that made an earlier call. Most schools that are switching plans still have kids on campus, just not as many. I’m rooting for all schools. We all need some colleges to succeed with kids on campus!
There was an email to parents/students as well. I think they made the announcement today because rumors have been flying as upper class housing assignments were supposed to be announced over a week ago…every day counts this close the wire. My daughter has to quit her job tomorrow if she is to comply with Duke’s just announced ‘please quarantine for 14 days before moving in’.
With Duke reducing density another 30%, seems almost all on campus will be in singles and I don’t think there will be even 3,000 in total in campus housing. UNC- CH has 19,000+ undergrads/50% live in campus housing and NC state 25,000 undergrads/38% in campus housing- and neither school plans any decreased housing density. These three schools are within a 25 mile circle.