The problem here is, how vast a majority? When I look at the evidence, I see that Notre Dame had few students testing positive when they showed up, and yet almost immediately there was a party with an outbreak. That suggests to me that there were also a lot of parties without outbreaks (when you see a mouse, there are other mice, not just one mouse). If there are parties, you’ve got to figure that the people who go to parties will keep going to parties and will spread the disease from party to party, because that is how contagious diseases spread.
The fact that they had few students show up infected, and yet had an outbreak at a party almost immediately, makes me believe the enterprise is unworkable. I don’t think their vast majority is vast enough.
it feels like a bad dream of who will be the last college standing.
I’m dropping my stuff at Tufts dorm tomorrow, but I come back home and “move in” on 9/8…why does that seem so far away? I hope and pray everyday …that I make it there!!
There was actually a contingent of seniors eligible to be on campus who opted out to rent houses with friends in various . And some seniors who petitioned to be on campus were granted it, so the situation is different than what it may appear.
Broad is using PCR because MAYO lab is our reference lab. Because MAYO cannot meet a faster turnaround time for our pre-op patients, they arranged for us to send out our outpatient swabs to their affiliate which is Broad Institute in MA. Our hospital lab is in upstate NY. We require covid19 PCR testing for now as it is at the moment the most reliable.
There’s too much information here to catch on the thread. But anyways, I’d like to share what all my kids schools are doing to open up for the fall semester during this pandemic.
Eldest son is a transfer to RIT. We moved him yesterday in one of the unfurnished apartments on campus after initially being denied of housing as a transfer. As required by school, he had to have a covid19 negative test within 14 days of moving to campus. We are thankful that we live in NY. It was easy to make an appointment to get the test from the health dept sponsored site. Turnaround time to get the result was 5 days. Result was sent to school. Son was given the clearance to move. QR code printed as having a covid negative test. Print displayed in our car dashboard and drove to campus on the appointed day and time. Thirty mins time allotted to go through covid tent from one of the assigned parking lot for clearance (by car) then instructed to move the next designated lot to pick up house key, masks and additional instructions. Picked up house key and student ID and moved him to the apartment. Students who are moving to the dorms were only given an hour to move with only one guest. If more than one guest accompanied the student, the other person will only be allowed if he/she switched places with the other guest. Basically the school is limiting the people who can be at the dorm. On our part, our son was the first to move. He has two other housemates scheduled to move this Sunday. Since the apt is unfurnished, we were able to spend more time to help him move and assemble his bed and table in his room. We also did the health screening prior to driving to the campus as required by them. I noted limited food service yesterday. But I saw 3 food trucks on campus. Our son will have 3 in person class and 1 online class.
Our daughter is an incoming sophomore at Colgate. Today she received her at home covid19 test kit provided by the school. She did the swab and we dropped the kit at the UPS store. This the first of 3 tests that the school requires for all students regardless of what state the student came from. A 14 day quarantine is mandated for all students, again regardless of the state. Meals will be rationed. The first few days of classes will be online for every student on campus. A second testing is performed within 24 hours of moving to campus and the third scheduled 7-10 days into quarantine. All of our daughter’s classes except for one is hybrid.
Lastly, our 10th grade son. I just finished attending the 2 hour zoom meeting provided by the school district. As you all may have heard from Gov Cuomo, he will let the school district, parents and the community decide how fall classes will be like for our students. That being said, we are lucky to live in a district with great educational system. After filling up a survey sent by the school, the district came upon with a hybrid model for those opting to go this route and fully remote. Students from K-12 will be divided into two groups so that half will do the in-person and the other half will do remote. This is for those opting for the hybrid. And the schedules will be interchanged for the group so the other half will do in-person/remote on certain days and with every other Friday each group will be in school (3-2 in-person/remote). Team sports is currently on pause for section 3 until Sept 21. Everyone is required to wear a mask in the bus and school. Social distancing, frequent disinfection, hall monitors, temp checks and many other preventive measures were discussed. It was detailed but many parents still have questions for the school.
This year is not going to be the same as any other years prior. Our way of life has been altered in so many, many ways by this virus. I hope everyone will be safe and healthy. Let us all try to be optimistic despite the long struggles ahead.
@Luckyjade2024 my DD20 is right there with you, except we are out of region so she will move in on 8/27. Then sit around for some time of quarantine–seems like it could vary from 6 days to 2 weeks… Even with the earlier move in date we are worried Tufts will reverse course before we get there! I hope not. Just sent a shipment of necessities to her dorm room.
ND had 99.7 percent negative home tests which means the .03 percent or 33 students that tested positive were not allowed on campus. In a period of 10 days or so since the kids who tested negative were allowed to move in, they now have 19 positive cases. The football team tested negative on Aug 1, today it was announced that 2 of their members tested positive.
BC is bringing everyone back on campus staggered days and they only get tested when they arrive on campus, move into their dorms on the same day as the test, and wait for the results. Thereafter, tests are given to select groups of staff, faculty and students who are in frequent contact with other students. Not sure how well this will hold up given that technically move in is happening before test results and the lack of frequency testing of all students.
I’ll be really surprised if BC ends up going back with that plan after seeing how it’s going at ND. BC parents are not going to want to send their kids back.
It’s expected that there will be positives on campus, especially at colleges with a lot of off campus students. That’s what’s happening at ND… still very few cases as a percentage of population. If they are successful in squashing the spread and keeping outbreaks to a minimum, then they will be successful. If not, they won’t. It’s a little early to be raising alarms about “what’s going on at ND”.
Wow. Well this most certainly will leave a terrible taste in nywestie kid’s mouth.
Kid is a junior, double science major, who will be taking 2 labs from our kitchen table this fall. Meanwhile, the administration is adamant that “remote learners will not be at a disadvantage”.
Knowing the Science Center is open and there are vacancies on campus is so disappointing. Actually infuriating. The class of 2022 has been invisible to this administration from the beginning.
Our high school just reversed course and going all remote. New guidelines from the state of Illinois make it impossible to go to school. They changed a few key metrics - a “contact” could be anyone who was within six feet of a student, masked or unmasked, for 15 minutes for the 48 hours before symptoms. Also, two cases in 14 days is considered a “breakout” and makes schools revert to remote. Our school has 3000 kids and, even divided into two groups, that’s a lot of kids at school. We would likely be shut down within a very short period of time. Apparently, anyone with the sniffles would also be required to stay home. I’m all for safety but this is over the top.
I don’t know why these changes are happening now. Our numbers are fine here in our county. If the state wants to keep kids home from school, then they should make the changes necessary to lower the rates to whatever they think they need to be to get kids back to school. Maybe they are looking at states in the NE with even lower levels and all remote high school. Who knows.
I wonder whether part of moving the goal posts is because we are hearing positive news about vaccines? So if we think there will be a vaccine soon, it makes a lot of sense to have Fall semester on-line. But if you think there won’t be any major changes any time soon in how we deal with Covid, then it becomes more important to push ahead.
@melvin123 – Just my opinion, but I don’t think K-12 administrators, teachers and parents are looking that far ahead. I think their decisions are in reaction to the stories we are seeing from schools that have already opened in Sun Belt states + the lack of testing supplies & their concern over the ability to deliver instruction w/o the risk of infection transmission.
I have no involvement in K-12 education so this is just my own guess.
Parents’ thoughts?? If my freshman’s classes all are online—even lab—why not take semester from home? It is an option offered by WUSTL. True, missing out on first year experience, but experience this year includes the reality of COVID, masks, distancing, online class from dorm room desk (single room only), no travel, sports, activities, travel. Will see some people, true, but can do that virtually too. Next year hopefully less risk. Thanks for replies.
I think we are getting an early taste of fall 2020 on campus, and thus far it has not been encouraging.
This thread has been running since the spring, and every conceivable angle of the situation has been discussed.
Many schools have done their best, but I think reality is setting in: with the high amount of circulating virus in the country, it will be a battle to keep schools open without suffocating (and likely unworkable) restrictions.
In light of the issuance of Los Angeles County’s Protocols for Institutes of Higher Education on August 12, Caltech has announced that its undergraduate program will need to be fully remote in Fall 2020.