Thanks for the deferral numbers from the Boston Globe article, Harvard with 20 percent of the entering class taking a gap year is a significant event which will impact admissions for years. Williams with 90 students opting to defer out of an entering class of 550 is also a large shift. Would be interesting to hear about deferral numbers at the other Ivies and NESCAC school.
I haven’t written in a while, as I didn’t want to jinx anything, but S19 will be flying back to Denison in four days now, and others are already on the road on their way to Granville. Denison is taking a pretty aggressive approach, allowing everyone to return and not limiting students to singles - S19 will be in a triple, although thankfully in a smaller building. (Denison is all residential, no off-campus housing.) Students who want to do remote can, and teachers seem to have a lot of flexibility in how they will teach. All four of S19’s fall classes will be remote, so he’ll be logging in from his dorm room, the library, the lawn, etc. There is no requirement that kids test before arrival unless they are coming from specific states tagged by the Ohio state government, although they will be tested periodically after arrival - not Broad Institute, Denison is cooperating with Ohio State on testing. The kids have been asked to complete a wellness report each day for fourteen days before arrival and to quarantine at home during that period. They’ve also been asked to sign a document committing to follow the rules. Each student has been asked to prepare a “Go Bag,” they can grab if they are suddenly moved to quarantine or isolation. Buildings have been set aside on campus for that purpose. There won’t be any fall sports, as NCAC has cancelled the season, but the track team will be holding daily practices as usual. There has been a tremendous amount of communication from the school over the summer, and we feel comfortable they have thought things through carefully. They clearly expect there will be outbreaks and that entire dorms, or even the entire campus, might need to shelter-in-place at some point. The President of the school has been working hard to convey the idea that this will all only work if everyone does their part, and that if they succeed they will all have something they can be very proud of. (People on CC are sometimes pretty cynical about the schools’ incentives in letting students come back, but if you think about it, the president is taking a tremendous career risk here, if things go awry - I really like the way he is conveying confidence in the students.) I’m sure there will be slippages, but at this point, I think they have done everything they can to convey the seriousness of the situation to the student body and get their buy-in. I am not sure how many kids will opt to be off-campus this semester, either studying remotely or taking a year or semester off. Anecdotally, from the parents’ FB page, it is clear that some kids are losing their roommates as people change their mind, but almost all of my son’s close friends, including his roommates, are a “Go.” Under the current rules in the Asian country we live in, I wouldn’t be permitted back in if I were to go to the States, so it is a strange feeling to send S19 off in these circumstances and know I won’t be able to travel if something goes wrong. DH doesn’t have the same problem, but he is in a high-risk category (actually I am as well). In any event, if all goes well, S19 will be back home in late November with lots of stories to tell.
That’s the rule. Coaches wear masks, students are not required to wear them on the field but do wear them into locker rooms, when in meetings, when watching film, etc.
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Remember there are also 2023 students taking a LOA, that will end up as 2024 students in the long run. While 1060 will be the first year census for 2020-21, the following year I expect our 2024 kids to have more company. That may have factored into MIT’s decision not to admit off the waitlist as well.
I do not really think the issue is what the rule is, it is more a matter of what makes sense. Major league baseball has stricter rules than this and it is not going so well for them. In my opinion (just my opinion so do not jump down my throat) no school k-12 as well as college should be trying to bring sports back along with students. The few participants put the whole plan at risk for all.
^Some day when the history of this school year is written…Watch out!
There were probably 75 people on the practice field. Rule or not, it makes no sense for students to be huddled in groups with no masks. NU football had a positive case last week too. I tried to post the link from my local paper but it was flagged.
NU also announced more layoffs and the city of Evanston is going to require a 14 day quarantine for arriving students.
Read this morning on CBS Sports that they expect all of college football to be delayed until spring. Big 10 isn’t practicing with pads yet. (We commented about that when we saw the team). Contact sports seem like a bad plan to me in general.
@momofsenior1 NU not looking so great right now. And, as you know, the local high school districts nearby are all remote.
S18 heads back to school in a week. Inevitable off campus parties worry me the most, no matter how small they are.
S22 has been practicing for weeks, unmasked, with his club soccer team. They begin scrimmaging teams from other states in the Northeast next week.
The positivity rate in Evanston is 1.07%. The city wants it to stay that way or be even lower. We have a month before the non athlete NU students return to campus. A lot can happen in a month!
One of S19’s classes went remote on Friday. I was surprised when he said he wished more were remote. I told him it wouldn’t surprise me if more went that direction as time went on. He drove up to deliver some things to his apartment and to keep a roommate company. He goes up for good next weekend.
Our local school board did the formal vote last week. H will be virtual until mid-sept. They will re-evaluate then and possibly begin bringing kids back in stages. The county kids start their hybrid plan next week. Masks are not required. I assume that will be the case for at least the lower grades here. I will assume H and I will catch it then. I am not looking forward to it.
On Thursday we were trying to leave Walmart when we were swamped by 3 kids ages 6-10. They were (of course) unmasked and came running up to H shouting “Mr. H” trying to give him a hug. H held out his arm and tried to hold them off saying “Please stay away. 6 feet. You know I’m happy to see you but you have to stay away.” But of course, they kept hugging, shouting, squealing, dancing, bouncing all around while mom looked on (mask at chin) at the counter saying nothing. Multiply this scenario by a hundred or more and that will be H’s life every single day. Kids in this area are very affectionate/touchy-feely. Pre-pandemic, it’s no big deal. But there is no way they will try to keep their distance and be little quiet bodies that follow rules.
As students return to colleges, will positive tests on campus be reported as ‘belonging’ to the town/city in which the campus is located, or will they be reported separately? What about the initial tests, in which students show up to school positive but contracted covid in their home state?
@momofsenior1 what I don’t understand is that the experts I see on the news say, if positivity rate is low, then it’s ok for kids to go back to school. But, what seems to be happening, is that places with low rates are the ones not having in person school to “keep it that way”. Those are the safest places to go back to in person class. No slam on Evanston. We’re seeing it all over the country.
I’ve wondered about that as well. There could be a noticeable jump in numbers anywhere there is a college campus. I also suspect the percent positives will go up since many schools are automatically testing everyone. They are going to find asymptomatic positives that never would have been tested otherwise.
Son is heading back on Thursday. Last night was his last shift of work. We’ve decided today is his “taking care of business” day. He will watch a Covid training video, sign a pledge to behave himself, and start his 14 day self monitoring which will allow him to attend in person classes on Aug 24, which as far as we can tell is still scheduled to happen. All his classes are still listed as in person.
Because evidently once you let all the chickens out of the coop, you know there will be a rise. No clear cut best answer to any of this.
Same in a few days and he hasn’t really been out much… Getting a flu shot prior to going to campus though.
@me29034 All of his classes in person? I didn’t know there was any school doing that. Why could they think that’s safe? Even colleges like John Hopkins with gads of resources just announced no one on campus. I don’t get it. I don’t get how some schools are full speed ahead and our S and many others have no chance to return to their campuses. This is the same virus. Some plan is wrong and we will soon find out.
@knowstuff where can you get a flu shot sooner rather than later? We were told that our doctors won’t have any until September at the earliest. None in August.
I would wait on getting flu shots until fall…say late September, October (but don’t take it from me, talk to your doctor). College campus health services should have plenty of flu shots for students.
Flu shot efficacy wanes over time and one wants to still be protected in February.