That is probably why controlling the virus is so difficult (at colleges and in general). To control the virus, everyone needs to cooperate competently. It does not take that many people behaving in a non-cooperative or incompetent manner to waste everyone else’s efforts.
Campus disciplinary action is not necessarily fast, and is more likely to make mistakes if it tries to be fast. But then that means that if a superspreading fraternity (or other) party happens, the participants who got the virus will have plenty of time to spread it to others before campus disciplinary action sends them home.
If the students’ hometowns have quarantine requirements, then the students being sent home are supposed to abide by their hometowns’ quarantine requirements.
I just ran into a neighbor with a D at ND. Let’s just say it’s way worse than we’ve been reporting here. Her D has a roommate she didn’t know (long story) and that roommate went to a party and felt sick the next day. She took three days to get a test. It was positive. They moved her to quarantine and my neighbor’s D to isolation in the same apartment complex. Her D was brought to a room in a van with one other student who hadn’t been tested and needed to go to isolation so could have been positive or negative.
When she got to her room there was no pillow or blanket on her bed. She mentioned it to some friends and they brought her her pillow They walked right into the apartment. Then, she went 24 hours with no food. She’s been there three days and has yet to have a first test.
She’s scared. Her mom wants to go get her but they have reasons that she can’t live at home right now. They wish they never sent her.
My neighbor also said that the kids there know that there are way more students with the virus than what’s on that dashboard.
@taverngirl But the issue with sending them home (especially in an outbreak), at least without testing everyone to confirm they are negative before sending them home, is you are then exposing several family members to COVID, as well as sending it into other communities. Biddy (the President of Amherst College) said she thought sending students home early/in the event of an outbreak could be a public health crisis.
@wisteria100 Yep. And they are serious about it too. At Amherst, they announced that they just sent a student home for leaving campus to get food downtown. Students aren’t allowed to get food or groceries delivered either. They sent students a link where they can report concerning behavior they witness for the school to investigate. Any student caught leaving campus without approval from Student Affairs, bringing a guest on-campus, and organizing/participating in a student gathering of more than 10 people will be immediately sent home without a Room & Board refund and put through the disciplinary process, with potential for suspension or expulsion from the College.
D says everyone she has seen on-campus (she has been released from quarantine after receiving a negative arrival test) has been observant of the rules, and virtually everyone is taking the rules seriously. She hasn’t observed a single student not wearing a mask.
Don’t think anyone has posted about the UConn parties --kids got kicked out of their dorms pending investigation. And there’s some party-shaming going on among the students themselves. That, and the fact that they started out with such a low positivity rate - 0.1% - is encouraging.
If I were a professor I’d be seething. Their whole response has been astoundingly incompetent. Evidently no math professors were on whatever committee planned this response, or they could have EXPLAINED TO THEM HOW EXPONENTIALS WORK. Jeez.
I know a family with a freshman and a senior at ASU. Both have all their classes online (not sure if that’s for now, or all semester). They’re living at home although both could have chosen to live on campus if they had wanted to. One had to make a trip to the Tempe campus today (first day of classes) on an errand. Said the campus was so deserted it seemed post-apocalyptic. So things aren’t exactly business as usual there either.
SIL is starting grad school at UArizona. All his classes are online too. He will only be on campus to work in the lab.
My son is at a state U in Texas. Dorms are open with a waiting list and they won’t kick students out if there’s an outbreak. They kept them open in the spring and the majority of students left when classes went online but some did stay. My son is in an off campus apartment (lease signed back in December). He is a music major with half his classes remote and only the ones that really have to be in person are in person, but with some major modifications compared to last year. We moved him in this past weekend. People in town were masked up. The campus is using rapid tests with results the same day, within hours, but is not doing widespread testing. Will see how that goes.
My observation is that most students And indeed many people I know, think they are being careful (Wearing masks in stores and on campus at least) and attempt to social distance and forget sometimes, but they also think their friends are safe. Possibly a dangerous assumption.
This is the problem I see with high school and college-age people… They don’t think their friends could possibly have it. Then one of my youngest’s close friends turned up positive. It was a reality check for sure. I’m glad MSU closed the dorms. I don’t think my kid is mature enough to fully follow the instructions. She’d try, and in her mind, she would be following them, except for this one time and that one time and the other time.
Very few contracts can hold up in court. Just because you sign then doesn’t mean they will definitely hold up. In other words you can always take someone to court for anything. I personally would think courts would side with the schools. We are kinda in a pandemic and they can only do so much. Kids are getting notifications weekly if not daily on their schools policies. Some are taking online modules that have to be completed before going. Some sign contracts stating the rules and consequences etc etc. They know the rules.
I would like to know where the kids that get busted are from. Is it all over or from states without stringent rules? That would be interesting to me. But I guess someone without a concern can start the party then the flocks will come?
@“Cardinal Fang” thanks for the tip re Prof. Dynarksi’s twitter feed. One commenter had this gem: “‘Why are students acting so recklessly?’ asks University president who decided to have everyone back on campus to keep enrollment up during a pandemic.”
“Come back to campus with all your friends, but don’t see them” is an impossible goal.
The greek houses at many schools are not on campus and not owned by the school. It is no different than an off campus apartments as far as school quarantine availability. The rules are probably set by the panhellenic group.