Speaking of bait and switch–intentional or not–I will be interested to see if students actually receive the high-tech, better quality remote classes they’ve been promised for fall 2020 compared to the spring. Based on the course delivery descriptions for D’s selected classes, her profs are sticking to Moodle (very old hat) and Zoom (passable, but not an upgrade from the spring).
@GKUnion - I sincerely can’t imagine a school is planning to hold a class with 200 students. No doubt they will be changing that and just haven’t communicated it.
Isn’t @GKUnion son in Canada? Hard to realize that as ?? continues its downward spiral other countries are returning to normal. I think I read Toronto (population 3 mm, I think?) only had a handful of new cases the other day.
So, it’s certainly possible.
I’m watching and waiting for day 1. The class was moved to an auditorium that holds 1300 people.
@GKUnion Wow, holds 1300? (And to think I thought a class of 300 was large.)
Makes me wonder how many TA’s for 1300? Probably 13 or so.
Hahahaha! The school has repurposed many spaces to accommodate classes. This auditorium is used for concerts/performances. I don’t believe it has ever been used for classes before this semester.
@GKUnion- Aah, that makes sense. Now I I imagine the setting much differently and would probably love a classroom like that! (A concert hall or auditorium versus a gym, lol!)
I was a TA several times years ago…and I was feeling for those TA’s knowing how much work proctoring exams can be for very large sections.
Maybe I should have S look at Canadian schools. ???
Wesleyan is really scaling up for some serious testing. Here is an HR memo calling for additional administrative support beginning next week:
http://coronavirus.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2020/07/28/july-28-2020-covid-testing-support-help-needed/
Here’s some examples of “bait & switch”. At D’s college they never once mentioned the possibility that freshman would have to move out the week of finals (Thanksgiving) after first semester and might not be guaranteed on-campus housing in spring. It was always expected that freshman would be guaranteed housing.
I think they should have at least stayed with the original plan of de-densifying the campus with most of the juniors and seniors living in off-campus college apartments and hotels that they own or would lease this year. Now all of a sudden its “we want to give the juniors and seniors the option to live on campus spring semester, sorry freshman and sophomores we are giving you the boot in November”.
In addition, just last week the freshman had their dorms assignments all completed and then its, oops sorry even though you have been corresponding with your dorm mates in building X for weeks and building relationships, we are reassigning you to another building now. Not to mention that families have been buying bedding for one type of bed but now have to get bedding for a different type of bed size, etc. The families on FB are not happy…
Regarding in-person classes, when D met with her advisor 3 weeks ago, the advisor said that 2 of her 4 classes should be in-person (small groups of less than 20 students) but when D went to get her tentative class schedule none of her classes had sections for in-person classes? What the heck? I think what they are not telling us is that the faculty and grad students just do not feel comfortable teaching in-person. Fine, but share this information with us before we are committed to attending.
Even as late as last week the college (out of the blue) starting telling students to get tested and self-quarantine for 14 days before move-in this Friday-Sunday but they didn’t give us enough time to even get a test, find out the results and than quarantine. Now they didn’t make it “mandatory” but this freaked out a lot of already stressed families. The plan had always been to test on campus before moving into the dorm that day but then this late notice comes. You think the university didn’t know they would ask for a 14 day quarantine until last week?
I get the feeling that these colleges were “slow playing us” all along and were purposefully not sharing with us the reality that college life will be like on their campuses. Just be honest or follow through on your original plans, you knew the virus wasn’t going to be gone in the fall.
I thought Duke would have done a better job of following their original, pretty restrictive plan as they have much more housing and open space than most similar colleges and a world-class medical center on campus not to mention the funds to do regular testing and quarantining, as necessary. There was/is more going on than meets the eye it would seem.
At least they didn’t raise tuition this year…there’s that…smh
My last point is that if the Purdue’s/Notre Dame’s can pull this off, these more conservative approach colleges will have a lot of explaining to do.
So yes, there has been some “bait & switch” that was not 100% caused by the increase in CV-19 cases in some states. I think they are using this as an excuse and always planned for most of these more restrictive measures to placate families when they were making the decisions to accept enrollment this year. It’s a shame and could have been handled better IMO.
My son has one class in an alumni ballroom. I looked it up on line. I guess in normal times. it can be rented out for weddings and such. I have no idea how big the room is but his class is 150 people.
So far, all of his classes are supposed to be in person.
Though I do love Montreal and Toronto, both me, and my son, are born and raised in the USA.
I checked state guidelines across the U.S. concerning gathering size. Does anyone here have a child attending a college in Nebraska? Apparently they can have gatherings of up to 10,000 people. I’d be interested to know if any classes are online in that state.
UVA delaying the start of in-person classes.
Today, we write to update you with one change: We are delaying the start of in-person undergraduate classes and the opening of undergraduate residence halls by two weeks. To be specific:
Undergraduate courses will still begin on Tuesday, August 25th, but all courses will begin online.
In-person courses for undergraduates will begin on September 8th, and students will be able to move into residence halls several days before then. More details will be forthcoming about the revised move-in schedule.
Graduate and professional school programs are unchanged and will start as planned, and students in those programs will hear directly from their school leaders with additional information.
https://vpsa.virginia.edu/communications/2020/updates-our-fall-2020-plan
@GKUnion My daughter is going back to Creighton for her junior year. Looks like all classes are in person, face to face. She’s a nursing student. We are from Washington state, so she’d be coming from a mandatory statewide mask requirement to very loose Nebraska. Masks are required on campus, though, as are daily healthy screenings through an app.
Three weeks prior to “go time.” Has that been approximately the time frame when other schools have unexpectedly pivoted at the last minute?
Just had a patient that starts there next week. All but one class is in person so far.
[quote=“ElonMomMD, post:12494, topic:2088334”]
UVA delaying the start of in-person classes.
Today, we write to update you with one change: We are delaying the start of in-person undergraduate classes and the opening of undergraduate residence halls by two weeks. To be specific:
Undergraduate courses will still begin on Tuesday, August 25th, but all courses will begin online.
In-person courses for undergraduates will begin on September 8th, and students will be able to move into residence halls several days before then. More details will be forthcoming about the revised move-in schedule.
This is SO much better than getting them there and sending them right home! Clemson had the same approach with a month instead of two weeks delay. I would welcome this news especially as these universities will see if others are able to succeed with their earlier dates.
I’m getting very impatient with schools using Hygiene Theater. For example, this:
First of all, most kids are asymptomatic. Then, most kids who are symptomatic won’t have fevers. So this stupid temperature-taking is largely useless theater, and won’t detect most kids who are going around infecting other kids with covid. It’s posturing.
But it gets worse. Once you catch a kid who does have a temperature, and therefore might have covid and be infectious, you make sure that kid gets right on the bus and sits right down, so they have a good chance to infect other kids. What nimrod came up with this plan? It’s spectacularly stupid.
It’s been six months now. We know that **covid-19 is spread through the air, largely by asymptomatic people. ** If your plan doesn’t have a way to stop infections spread through the air by asymptomatic people, don’t start blathering about deep cleaning of surfaces, temperature taking, and other secondary measures. Don’t tell me about sealing up the tiny cracks when you’ve left the doors and windows wide open (figuratively; literally, you should leave the doors and windows wide open).
I’m interested in how BC does because they’re inviting all students back to campus iirc.
Any NE gathering over 500 requires submitting a detailed plan to the local health department for approval