Guess you haven’t been reading this thread? That Reddit kid at Notre Dame was sick. And since UNC wasn’t doing surveillance testing, I’m pretty sure they found all the clusters because somebody was symptomatic.
Well, this plan to save football is a little nuts.
Faced with a rapidly approaching football season, as well as still spiking COVID-19 number, a plan has been proposed to reduce campus attendance, but with the football team preparing for the season in a semi-secluded environment.
According to conference sources, the plan is based on schools teaching the majority of their classes on line as well as reducing the campus attendance to 20 percent of the student body.
Football team counts towards the 20 percent.
Georgia contact tracers having trouble getting cooperation from students and their families at Lovett School in Atlanta, which had a major cluster.
Hopefully, college students will be more cooperative.
ETA: Two covid19 clusters found at North Caroline State:
So the problems are happening in off-campus housing–but the solution is to cancel in-person classes, where problems are NOT happening??
@Luckyjade2024 any new info on the Tufts zoom meeting you can share?
The schools that cancelled or postponed football did it because their conferences did (Big 10, PAC 12). All the D1 schools in Colorado cancelled football because of the conferences (Mountain West, Big Sky, PAC 12). High school football is postponed till spring because the HS Athletics controls it.
The NCAA cancelled championships, not play.
Many of the football players have been on campus since mid-June and have been tested many time. They may be testing positive now if they’ve had contact with other students.
@AlwaysMoving - if leases were signed those kids are staying, off campus is better than mom and dad’s basement. I do not know if the local restaurant or bar owners would agree with your idea, unless the local landlord is willing to end the lease which they do not have to do or should do.
Because Greek kids don’t go to class? You don’t know that problems aren’t happening in class. Just because there are clusters happening in certain places, doesn’t mean there aren’t cases happening in others.,
If you are only testing symptomatic people, some of your asymptomatic spreaders are going to go to class and endanger your faculty and other students. It is all connected in a college community, with the exception of the bubbled football players.
In NJ it does not really matter where you go to school, your real estate taxes pay for your local school district so in the short run it helps the school district in less kids to teach and social distancing. 75% of my property taxes go to my local school. When they school budget comes up it may bite them , in years past they rally was , think about the children, now it seems they teachers have put the children in a different place of priorities.
Well, that was enough excitement for the night: D was freaking out for about five minutes because there was a rumor flying around that Biddy sent a message to the Student Advisory Committee saying they were considering sending all students home because a few students have already been caught leaving campus to get food downtown/breaking quarantine. Turns out, somebody blew that message out of proportion/context. Biddy did send a message to the Student Advisory Committee about potentially sending students home, but she was supposedly just talking about students they caught violating the social contract they all had to sign.
As if the day before move-in isn’t already stressful enough with all that’s going on in the world.
Football players do go to class, and do not all have the same classes, so they would not be a sealed bubble unless all of each player’s classes are delivered by distance education.
@RosePetal35 Ugh, no one needs extra stress. Do you know if first years are moving in tomorrow (8/19)?
@gotham_mom They’re not doing move-in by class year. Students from non-exempt states had the choice of moving in on August 15th, August 16th, or August 20th; students from exempt states had the choices of moving in on August 19th, August 21st, or August 22nd.
This whole idea of “having thousands of kids live together but take classes remotely” never made a lick of sense to me as a virus-spread prevention approach. It’s not that I have a better idea, but I just kept thinking as the weeks went on - “If they can live together in apartment complexes and roam the community together, why can’t they sit in a classroom?”
Or, to put it another way, “What’s the point of remote learning if they’re living in close proximity?”
My son is a sophomore at a small private that I think might get through this okay (fingers crossed , looking good so far) - but his major HS friend group is at Auburn. Mostly living together in various apartment settings, constantly visiting each other, hanging out, going out into the town to do whatever (I don’t know what’s open, don’t live there). But by golly they are all doing most of their classes remotely - sitting in the apartment (their parents signed a lease for 9 months ago) on their laptops all day - so I guess they and we are all safer because they aren’t going to classrooms?
It’s a terrible bind everyone is in at the moment. I feel for everyone.
I’ve posted before about the local prep school’s covid outbreak and the covid kids then lying to contract tracers and then showing up at the ACT. I’m not in Georgia but I think there are lots of little stories like this - maybe the outbreaks were bigger at the GA school.
These are two great posts.
I think we all kind of hoped that things would work out with some type of safety measures on campus, but it is not to be this fall.
There’s just too much virus about, and the virus is just too contagious.
S19 tells me a couple girls he knows in a sorority got tested (and were positive) specifically because they had symptoms. And this is just his personal experience. Where are you hearing of “only asymptomatic”? I’m sure there are many in that category, but not all by any means.
Few schools, if any, have point-of-care testing capabilities. Even the best case takes a day or two to get the test result. Unless rules on social distancing and mask wearing are strictly observed (or enforced), the virus is going to spread. It’s going to spread faster at schools with large off-campus student populations and multiple-occupancy dorms. Then there’s the question of adequacy of isolation/quarantine rooms. Few schools, especially large schools, have sufficient number of rooms reserved for that purpose. Telling off-campus students who may have been infected to stay in their rooms isn’t going to work in most cases.
Villanova was just reclassified as a “National University” by US News last year
Tufts zoom went really well. Reiterated well thought out plans. Contracted for 18,500 tests/week.
Students tested upon arrival and then every three days.
Isolation units (400) are in place. They went into detail on quarantine and isolated…what would happen during that time. Discussed mental health services and medical services in place. it was informative and positive.
Main thing is students must do their parts…masks, social distance and no large gatherings (over 10). Testing, and quarantining when needed. Parties and large gatherings will not be tolerated.
What I really liked is Tufts said no other school or outside forces will influence Tufts closing…only Tufts students will control that. Students wearing masks, social distancing and following protocols will be key. We have to look out for each other and our surrounding community…they acknowledged it will not be easy but they have a lot of support in place for any student that needs it. 24/7.
Staggered arrival started two days ago…no positive cases! Arrival takes place up until 9/13…so staggered over a month, not a few days will help.
I’m hoping for the best.
wishing a good start to colleges today.