I regret to say that my son’s school, Kalamazoo College, reports that they too are testing only symptomatic people and people exposed to known positives. Not enough. Hopefully by the time they start, the cheap fast tests will be available and they can use them.
@cptofthehouse and @RosePetal35 - Notre Dame brought RAs back early. It did help form a communication perspective. They were not able to do the usual RA stuff like help move furniture in the room to loft beds etc. I am surprised schools are not following the normal model they have for RA/CA move in.
@EmptyNestSoon2 --I do not know, and cannot quite determine from this article. I believe that the university wanted approval to use Vet school testing in order to reduce the strain on the local community. 30K college students arrive in Ithaca each fall between the two schools, and the local hospital is maybe 220 beds.
From the university’s return to campus page:
“Recognizing the importance of preserving capacity for testing of the broader Tompkins County community, we sought (and received) approval from the state to develop a new on-campus viral testing laboratory based on unique skills and expertise in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center in collaboration with physicians and diagnosticians at Cayuga Health System. These efforts have also drawn on expertise from other faculty on campus and from colleagues at Weill Cornell Medicine, and involved close collaborations with the Tompkins County Health Department (TCHD). The new Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory (CCTL) housed in the College of Veterinary Medicine is now complete, adding critical capacity to our region. We have just now completed validation of pooled testing of anterior nares (front of the nostril) samples – a critical development for convenient, high-volume testing. The CCTL will continue to work in a partnership with Cayuga Health System to provide the full suite of surveillance and diagnostic testing required to support our campus community.”
RAs don’t provide an essential service. 18 year olds can look after themselves. Why put low wage workers in danger when it isn’t necessary? The general consensus policy is still for employers to allow their workers to work from home where possible.
@usma Williams is having Junior Advisors arrive earlier, with training programs and coordination as normal.
Why bring in RAs first? How about to welcome the freshmen and to answer questions? To have a process in place to start making community? This kind of stuff is even more important this year.
ND updated again. Seven positive today out of 40 tests. That’s not a good percentage. Four yesterday out of 20 tests. Four the day before too…that virus is on campus even though they thought they only let kids in who were negative.
@TennisParent Are JAs paid at Williams?
I remember that there were some issues around pods and affinity groups recently. I wonder if those were resolved. https://williamsrecord.com/2020/07/jas-push-for-first-year-affinity-spaces/
They were negative…when they did the test.
It’s really hard to believe, but the chaotic nature of the virus makes everything mentioned in this thread with regards to planning and process well-intentioned hoping.
In most environments, you can probe and sense alternatives before acting. In a chaotic environment, you have to act in order to sense and analyze alternatives. Every action creates a chain of alternate reactions you can’t evaluate until they occur. It is…as the name implies…chaos.
The virus has found a sweet spot…it takes a few days to incubate, allows many to carry and spread without symptoms, and found a very effective way to move among us. We’ll figure it out, but the virus had a head start on us.
Thats not an essential service. This thread is discussing how some parents of K-8 children are struggling with getting child care while they go to work because the schools are shut. RAs for adult college students shouldn’t be what our education system is prioritising.
RAs are already going to school. Just saying they should go a little early. Has nothing to do with K-8. RAs going early would have zero effect on K-12
I don’t believe they are mutually exclusive.
What I think is fair to ask of college administrators is “why aren’t you doing all of the things you’re asking students to do”?
I would bet looking at the daily positives percentage, no.
They are more senior students at the colleges but the infection control best practice would be for them to be in their own bubbles with classmates while studying online or only coming to campus for their own lectures. Looking after freshman f2f is an unnecessary extra exposure for each other.
@EmptyNestSoon2 the animal lab has to be NAHLN (National Animal Health Laboratory Network) certified, certified by them to do COVID-19 testing and certified to do Human SARS COV-19 testing. For human med schools I think they also have to be certified by some national network to do SARS COV-19 testing but they are automatically covered for humans.
His school is providing human testing for the some parts of the region also since they have a very large lab.
The RAs at my kid’s school arrived three days early, were tested and once they got their test results were on the job. Could not help students move in, but could assist with questions, help them feel at ease and offer support - all while masked and six feet apart.
My daughter is going to be an RA this year, and she is going back to campus three days before the first year students arrive for RA training (a mix of online and distanced I believe) . The school has been very supportive in communicating that it is their job to help guide the first year students and be there for questions about academics, residential life and welcoming them to campus, but are not expected to be the mask police; they should remind students of the rules, and can also report those who are not complying.
She does have a larger single room, but all students are going to have single bedrooms for the fall term.
Or find the right school district. Ours starts out about $55k but that doesn’t include benefits (presumably the pod education isn’t providing for healthcare and a pension on top of salary). But still the pod education is still a good gig.
College instructor–35 years of teaching experience. Master’s degree. Teach full time. Not making that much. I need a pod, clearly! 
Majority of ND positive cases traces to off campus party.