Assistant rectors and resident assistants will move into halls beginning July 26.
Hundreds of student leaders will arrive August 1-2 and will participate in an in-depth training designed to share information about COVID-19 transmission and risks, reinforce campus health and safety practices, help establish new campus norms, and serve as a resource for peers. About 1,300 students will receive this training before classes begin, augmenting the return-to-campus orientation required of all students, faculty, and staff members.
New first-year students and transfer students will move in on either August 3 or August 5.
The welcome program for new graduate students will be Monday, August 3 and Tuesday, August 4.
My daughter goes to UMD she is a sophmore this year. We signed a 12mth lease after she got booted from her room assignment due to dedensification. She was still going to be offered housing but we wouldn’t find out what that would be or how much until August something. (They just reshuffled kids again to make singles and will be repricing). Additionally, we didn’t know the status of her classes online or in person. I figured everything would be online except labs. Indeed, that is true she has one in person Physics lab (for now). The cost of the 12mth lease us just under the cost of what her room and board would have been. Now, we still need to feed her but given what she has been spending on food at home…that is not much. She is going to be living at the nicest place she will probably live her for a long time and I told her to enjoy the heck out of it lol. If campus closes–she can stay. We knew when we signed that we were signing a lease. Now, when you sign up for housing and room and board you are also not getting that money back from UMD either but that is by semester.
The one thing that is clear is academics per se will probably be taking a backseat to the drama unfolding around them, even for students who will be arriving for what’s left of the residential college experience. Not saying people won’t be taking their studies seriously. Just that I can’t imagine anything being quite as “educational” as what will be happening all around them in real time: the constant testing, mask wearing, all the mitigation procedures. The quarantines. They’ll be talking about it for the rest of their lives.
I’m still following our old OH public school school FB page and there is a spirited discussion about parents opting for the free Ohio virtual academy K-12 online school vs the online program being put together by the public school. Lots of complaints that the brick and mortar school’s online plan doesn’t have enough offerings, especially for advanced coursework and electives. That could be a big budget problem for the public school since the state $ follows the student to the virtual academy.
We had heard rumors that private schools in my current town were going to follow the lead of the public schools but, that has gone out the window and the privates are moving forward with in person classes. There are various plans depending on school but all of them are offering an in person option. From my limited sample set of patients at the office, most parents are sending their children back to in person and feel safe with the protections the schools have put in place.
A lot of private k-12 schools believe they need to at least attempt to offer in person classes because without them, a lot of kids will go to their public school. Not all but a significant number and your revenues take a big hit.
You can back out but are you legally permitted to back out of a lease. Will depend on the terms of the lease. Did the parents guaranty the lease? Not clear if landlords will sue to collect and how that will be viewed by the courts. Will there be a difference between kids who signed leases post-Covid and those who signed up well before Covid was even a thing? Could take a lot of time to sort out.
I don’t believe any school using Broad Institute have walked back their plans. I’m assuming they have not done so partly because they feel good about getting the testing they need.
I assume the NESCACs got together to work with Broad. They aren’t big schools. And the other schools using Broad (I think maybe Harvard is?) have limited kids on campus. So, Broad knows their plans, knows how many students. No one is thinking a bunch of other schools could jump on the Broad bandwagon. I’m sure they must have limits but, hopefully, they know what they are and it matches up with what they’ve already promised.
I’m really kind of shocked about how people are believing that Broad Institute is going to be able to do everything they say they can. All other testing in the US is a mess but somehow this organization is going to be perfect? When it has never done anything near this level of testing before? Yeah, I’m skeptical. I’m hoping they can pull it off - maybe they are doing something different than everyone else and can train all the other labs in the country. Or maybe, they will run into the same problems that are plaguing all other testing facilities when they start trying to ramp up operations.
Please see @homerdog post #11898. We don’t know the details on what Broad has agreed to, but its very easy to imagine that they have (months ago) contracted with X schools for X tests and have stocked up what they need to support that. Unlike Quest and CVS who are getting tests nationally as they come (unplanned and with lots of volume volatility) these test requests are defined and planned. Does that see feasible? I admit fully that I know nothing about Broad and if they are currently a lab that is also taking “ad hoc” tests from national sources, but my guess is that they are not - and have fixed customers and fixed testing capacity.
Edited to add - did my googling and they are doing what I thought. They have set number of tests that the process (35K per day) for the state of Massachusetts. The college stuff is a different thing:
We anticipate being able to support several dozen institutions in total,** at a sustainable level**, so Broad can also continue to fully serve critical public health needs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, especially for at-risk communities.
Tests are being provided at cost. The cost-per-test is expected to be between about $25 and $30.
Under the program, participating colleges and universities determine who is eligible to be tested (such as students, faculty, and/or staff, with physician approval) and how often (twice weekly, weekly or once every two weeks). Broad will assemble and send the test kits, including tubes and swabs, and schools will follow protocols for proper swabbing and test kit handling.** Then, Broad will process the tests, returning results within about 24 hours of receipt. **
Software for collection sites, logistics, and return-of-results has been developed by ELLKAY, LLC. In addition, schools can elect to use a mobile app developed by CoVerified to engage with Broad Institute testing systems.
Sorry, that this many kids are turning up in those communities for what will likely be online school. These communities will bear the brunt of that population not being able to exit leases and having no university to attend. This will put kids in place with time on their hands and little structure. Given a choice many families would exit the lease and opt for their kid to stay home, but if they have to pay anyway, these kids are going LOL.