No @TennisParent , the LAC kids are no different, even when located in the North. See recent videos of large and wild parties at Villanova.
I thought I heard that football teams can’t play unless students are also on campus so, if ND goes home, I wonder what happens. Or is that just for public schools?
@suzyQ7 BC is testing students upon arrival. They will then quarantine until they receive results. After that, 1500 tests per week of (somewhat)randomly selected members of the campus community with emphasis on high contact individuals and students from states where the virus is spreading rapidly.
Sadly, I do not think this is a plan that sets BC up for success.
I said if the smaller schools manage to pull of having in-person instruction. That’s still to be seen. It will be interesting to see if the schools that are offering in-person instruction manage to get it to work and if they do, if they will get more applications for next year’s admissions. The situation here in Canada is a bit different than in the U.S. though as we don’t have any selective admissions small schools. Top students for the most part gravitate towards the large selective admissions research universities. Also many of the smaller schools don’t offer a full range of programs. Few for example offer engineering, computer science, or business, which are some of the most selective admissions programs at present.
In any case it has yet to be close to 3 semesters of online instruction here. Our universities were closed down in the middle of March but the semester ends in April. DS19 only had 3 weeks of class left before finals. The bulk of the semester was done. Most students also do not attend the spring/summer session and course offerings are more restricted. I do know that at DS’s school many of the lab courses were not offered during the spring/summer session. For the fall semester some schools are still offering in-person labs and practicums for certain programs and for upper year students. Not all students are being equally impacted. For DS his fall semester will be 100% online but for my friend’s daughter who attends a small school she will be having hybrid classes with in-person labs.
I will say that if DS19’s school were to announce that his lab courses for fall 2021 were going to continue to be online, I would seriously have him consider transferring to a school that was offering in-person instruction.
Ha! The kids I know at Bowdoin/Williams/Colby would be the ones organizing the party!
Villanova isn’t an LAC. I don’t know that this is a north vs. south thing but I think the off-campus part seems to be the problem and the NESCACs do not have off campus housing (or at least the ones I’m familiar with do not). All kids will be in campus-owned dorms that have rules. There will be no where to party.
Like dominoes, they are all going to go down eventually. I think it’s becoming pretty obvious that this on-campus, in-person “experiment” is just not going to work for the vast majority of colleges this fall and likely this year and we will see every college going to online instruction, will kick most, if not all, the students off campus (unless they have special needs, internationals, athletes, etc.) and the colleges will wait this out.
Same goes for middle schools and high schools. Good intentions to have F2F classes but reality will set in quickly that they are going to have to pivot, shutting down the schools and kids will be at home doing classes remotely.
I think we tend to forget that we are in the middle of historic pandemic with 1,000+ new deaths a day, all this without a vaccine in sight. We are learning the hard way that residential college living combined with in-person classes is antithesis to controlling the spread of a deadly virus.
Middlebury has a fair number living in town this year. A professor has already tweeted reports of unmasked students at local bars and shops in the area. (I tried to post a link to the tweet but was flagged for moderation.)
That is the reason they are keeping them on campus. Close them in their room with chaperones watching the halls until football season is over.
There will be no where to have a party at least at Bowdoin. Only 600 kids, almost all freshmen. I watched their town hall and there will be no funds for the parties that usually happen in the sophomore houses and no one to plan them anyway. These freshmen won’t know any upper classmen living in Brunswick or other parts of Maine to go to their parties and they are supposed to stay close to campus (on campus or to the town just for what they need) anyway. Bowdoin also announced that any older students living in Brunswick can get tested by the college once a week and should plan to do so. S19’s roommates will take them up on that. We don’t know those details since anyone not living on campus is not allowed in campus buildings.
@suzyQ7, I did not read through the whole CMU plan, but it seems that local students do not need to quarantine and others are allowed to quarantine in the area, while not necessarily on campus. So maybe, there are some kids back already and some kids scheduled to return closer to the start of classes on 8/31.
But are they going on the campus for class? Bowdoin classes all remote. Kids off campus need to stay off. There’s nothing for them there. They don’t have access to any buildings.
Back to K-12, more and more school systems in NJ are going remote for the next couple months. Looks like my H will be able to. Very, very glad we live in a mixed-SSE community where money goes to providing all students (many low-income) with Chromebooks, and Wifi when necessary.
Also very glad I live in a sane state where the big state U went remote early, and we have continued to mostly do the things that mostly keep the numbers down.
If the rest of the country had looked at the forest fire we had here in April, maybe they’d have things more under control now. What would be considered really out-there behavior around here (stuff that happens but gets a huge backlash) seems run of the mill elsewhere, as far as I can see by what other people say elsewhere in the country.
We still can’t eat inside in restaurants, go to gyms, hair dressers, nail places, and mask wearing is mostly not considered the mark of the devil.
I think this same mindset–we got burned once and we are going to be extra cautious–explains MSU’s going remote (and I worry about the path my alma mater, UM, is taking still.)
This all could have been different.
Funny–the “dominoes” metaphor is exactly what popped into my brain too. I know I’ve been annoyingly pessimistic about all this, but this is what I (and others here as well) have fully expected. I honestly just didn’t think it would all happen QUITE so fast. It just seems cruel that so many colleges, good intentions or “bait-and-switch” notwithstanding, are just figuring this out now, and leaving disappointed students and stressed (emotionally, physically, and financially) parents in their wakes. And of course, in the communities where the outbreaks are occurring, the damage has already been done, regardless of whether students stay or leave.
An op-ed in the NY Times today by John M. Barry–a professor at Tulane (!) who wrote a book about the 1918 pandemic–said this:
“Bringing the economy back requires precisely the same three measures that controlling the virus does: First, better compliance with social distancing, wearing masks, personal hygiene and avoiding crowds; second, finally — finally — getting the supply chain and personnel infrastructure in place to support the necessary testing and contact tracing; and, third, the bitter medicine of regional shutdowns.”
When I read it, I said out loud, “We’re screwed” (although, to paraphrase “A Christmas Story,”…“but I didn’t say ‘screwed’”).
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Does anyone know if off-campus kids eat on ND campus?
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They are permitted to have dining plans but typically off campus students at ND do not have them. On campus dining has largely been food to go since the start.
I heard that UNC is only giving room refunds if you made the request by yesterday. Doesn’t seem fair and may encourage kids to stay when they really want them to leave
There are some Midd students living off-campus who are allowed on campus (and in dorms). I found this on Middlebury’s COVID info, "Middlebury students enrolled for on-campus study who are living in approved off-campus housing are considered to be on-campus students and may be invited guests in residence halls; they must follow physical distancing, face covering, and other health requirements. "
This doesn’t seem prudent. Bowdoin’s plan makes so much more sense.
@gotham_mom yes that is a curious rule for Midd. At Bowdoin, and I think at Williams and Amherst(?), no one can go in a dorm who doesn’t live in that dorm.
Gettysburg seems to be doing the best job possible. Obviously, that could change.
Move in was staggered, every student tested and quarantined until results were posted.
9 tested positive, contact tracing done. Those in quarantine are not complaining about the experience.
Some classes remote, some f2f or a hybrid. Kids either living on campus or in a hotel in town leased by the college this semester for students to spread them out. A couple gatherings per the rumor mill that were squashed pretty quick by campus security and then addressed by the dean. Students seem to be following the mask and distancing guidelines. Very nice weather at the moment is a plus for outdoor eating, classes and socializing.
I think a small school like this in a state that was hit hard in the beginning but doing well now has a much better shot at success than a big state university.
I will say, however, that the experience will probably prove to be pretty boring!
We’ll all have the answers soon enough.
@homerdog Williams has the same rule as Bowdoin. I think you’re right that Amherst does, too.
In last week’s Williams’ town hall, the administrators made it clear that if your significant other is not in your pod, you cannot be intimate, even if you live in the same dorm.