Dropped my kiddo off at Rice this week. She goes early because she’s an advisor for incoming freshman. Did a rapid test when arrived. Being tested again tomorrow,. Had to move in by herself. No parents allowed to help. School has changed mask policy until Labor Day when it will be reviewed again. You basically must have a mask on when on campus unless your eating (and distanced) or in your room. Even outside. They say it’s because they want kids to get into the habit of wearing them. I suspect it’s a little about perception. If everyone is wearing one people can’t make judgments about the 2 random people they see walking on campus mask-less without knowing if they are roommates or just people in the community out for a walk (like the Facebook posts being made by parents). Campus is also dry until at least the first day of class.
We were actually VERY impressed by the mask-wearing/distancing we saw on campus and in the community around campus. Texas might be sort of a mess but that particular community seems pretty on top of things. The flight on the way home was a whole other story…
I know at Syracuse several members of my D20’s best friend’s “pod” are on probation for violating the compact/agreement. Apparently they were warned previously but continued to break protocol. This is the tip of the iceberg I’m afraid…
@socaldad2002 Bet you’re feeling like you and your D made a good call. All of the posts about “what would my S or D do if they didn’t take class and stayed home?” At some point, who cares. You aren’t wasting money on a bad experience. I hope some smaller schools have better luck.
How does that even make sense? You are requiring students to do schooling online presumably because it’s unsafe to have them congregating in school but then you are going to charge parent $600 to allow the kids to congregate at school anyway but do their classes online? They might as well just offer them in-person classes at no cost. Are they saying that it’s too dangerous for teachers but not daycare workers?
D just finished her for first day of CA (Amherst equivalent of RA) training. Got some interesting information about the potential status of spring semester.
This may seem off-topic at first, but I promise, it is relevant. Every floor at Amherst has at least one single, because all CAs live in their own rooms. Since everybody gets a room to themself this semester, all rooms (including doubles) will house only one student. Many CAs are upset this year because while all students have their own rooms, they all got singles, and quite often were put in some pretty small singles as well. D is on a floor with mostly singles, but it appears from the room plan that despite being a CA, she got the smallest single on the floor. One of D’s CA friends reported that every room on her floor except hers is a double (meaning that even though she is a CA, everybody else will have a double to themselves except her). This is upsetting to many of the CAs because usually, one benefit of being a CA they like to flout is larger rooms for themselves, and this year, it appears CAs got the short end of the stick.
When the CAs brought this up during the meeting, they got a rather interesting reason: apparently, Res Life wants all CAs to live on the same floor throughout the year without having to move rooms. ** They said the administration is “hopeful”, even though juniors and seniors have first priority for the spring, that they can bring more students back for spring, potentially inviting all students back. ** In this event, since students would need to occupy doubles, some CAs (if any of them were living in doubles in fall) would likely have to move rooms halfway through the year. Although an earlier communication from Res Life to the entire student body said that students would have to move out at the end of the semester regardless of who is invited back in spring (because the housing selection process is going to be completely redone for spring), CAs may be exempt from this mandatory move-out rule.
This next part I have shared before, but in case anybody’s confused; CAs are guaranteed housing the whole year ** unless ** they decide that only students with special circumstances can live on-campus in spring; so if they were to say just juniors and seniors in spring, sophomore CAs would still get to stay.
All that still doesn’t explain why many CAs got put on the smallest singles in the floor, even on floors which have multiple singles; however, I digress. That’s not relevant to this thread.
There is always the option of not going to school this year. If you don’t like the single rooms or the number of tests or that other students are having parties, just don’t go. The school will still be there next year and by then it will be better or you’ll know it is NOT going to be better. One student I know asked to stay home because he’d only have 2 classes per week in person and it was just cheaper and he felt safer to stay home. Sure he’ll miss his friends and campus life but he felt it was the right decision to stay home.
@twoinanddone My wife, who was an RA at Smith, actually believes the CAs at Amherst are justified in being upset about the room situation. My D actually doesn’t care, but many of the CAs do.
And it’s not just the singles; there are many other problems CAs are having, the singles thing was just the only example relevant to the previous update. From some of the stories D has told me, it appears Amherst College Residential Life kind of has a history of taking CAs for granted. D reports there are actually many people who will be a CA one year and love the job itself but not come back because they don’t want to deal with Res Life. They sent out that message like two weeks ago about having 18 open CA positions because they had a ton of trouble getting new CAs and were desperate, because so many people don’t want to deal with Residential Life. D said she was kind of expecting that from all the stories she’s heard, coupled with the fact that Res Life (even before the pandemic) seems to never get anything done on time and has notoriously poor communication.
@RosePetal35 But for this year it probably doesn’t matter as much how big your room is or isn’t. It’s not like you are going to be holding gatherings in there, especially because kids are only allowed in their own dorm building. Were the CAs put in dorms with their pod of friends? If not perhaps that is why they had a hard time recruiting. Because if you are limited to one dorm, you want your friends on the floor.
@wisteria100 That’s fair; I just mentioned that issue because it was relevant to the update. That’s kind of just the tip of the iceberg; there are many issues that CAs are having with Res Life (i.e. CAs are responsible for enforcing COVID-19 related rules on their respective floors, but Res Life hasn’t given them any specific guidelines on how to enforce the rules, and will only give very generic answers).
I actually agree with you on that first point, but my wife (who was a Smith RA) doesn’t, because she believes that having a lot of personal space to yourself in a college room is a big deal, and is an especially important part of being an RA (or, in the case of Amherst, a CA).
I feel really bad for some of these kids (young adults). My D was going to be rooming right next door to a girl on a QuestBridge scholarship but she doesn’t have the ability to take a gap year and had to move into her dorm on Sunday. Well her mom just posted that all of this student’s classes are full and all would have been online anyways; she spent all day crying in her dorm room and hadn’t eaten for 24 hours.
Another mom posted that her D was put on the less used West campus dorm. She moved in the first day and there was not a single other freshman or adult/RA in the entire building for at least a day. How scary and spooky for a 18 year girl to be all alone, quarantining in her dorm room with not another soul around. The mom was rightfully pissed. Her D could have been missing for days and no one would have known!
These are the real experiences of some of these kids who should be thrilled to be going away to their “dream” college but instead are feeling isolated, alone, and home sick. I hope the administration does a better job of making these students feel welcome and part of a community before they are sent home at Thanksgiving.
@wisteria100 Also, CAs weren’t in pods with their friends, but this isn’t the first year they’ve had the recruiting issue; it’s been an issue for a long time. Part of me thinks they are giving CAs the perk of near-guaranteed on-campus housing in spring just because it would be too difficult to go through the hiring process again mid-semester.
@socaldad2002 The big question is whether the Questbridge scholarship student knows anyone with a bigger dorm room than she has. Hope the semester ends up well for her and all other college students and those taking gap years.
I couldn’t agree more. One of the biggest reasons that I’m relieved that my D is taking a gap year is that her school didn’t seem to be giving adequate attention to the unusual level of mental health support that will be needed not just for first years, but for all students.
@saillakeerie I don’t think that’s fair. You have to understand, CAs take on a huge responsibility for relatively small pay, and the singles issue is just the tip of the iceberg; Amherst has a lot of trouble finding CAs because Res Life doesn’t treat them very well.
Hope the semester ends up well for her and all other college students and those taking gap years.