Homerdog, it’s been interesting to follow your thread and thoughts for almost five months now… Thank you for the thread.
Assuming fall 2021 is on-line most places, (which I do at this point in time) what will you advise your daughter?
Multiple Vanderbilt football players test positive.
I heard a different message than you did…one that said returning to school will be completely unlike it has been in the past and it is going to require monumental effort and a commitment of every member of the community to take responsibility to act in ways that protect others…not just in the last month, but since May. There are countless students who have intended to do what they can to get the most of their educational experience and for many, the decision to return to campus is not driven by going to parties or ‘lifestyle’. I think the people that are partying upon returning to school are also the ones that have no problem socializing unmasked in groups while at home. And this is a big part of why we can’t have nice things.
Homerdog, instead of our CA beach town emptying out with the college and high school kids going to back to school (which happens like clockwork by mid-August every year), it is absolutely packed with no end in sight. I predict it will stay this way through Fall. When a dozen or more kids pull up in crowded cars, park in front of my house and head to the beach in a pack, and then I see them sit shoulder to shoulder for long periods of time, I think well, at least they are outside. This happens every day. My own teens never went to the beach this summer with more than 2 friends to ensure easy social distancing. I fully suspect that those that are not following protocol here are the same people that would not if they were living near on/near their college campuses; I’m just not sure if this is 5%, 10%, or what % of the young adult population we can expect to continue to act this way. So those CA schools that held off this year on having anyone back can watch and learn and guesstimate how they can weed out noncompliance with basic protocols, because that is what seems to be driving why we can’t have nice things.
As a practicing attorney of 32+ years, my experience is that a valid contractual agreement will hold up in court.
I’m in the same spot as Homerdog, so I can give you a similar but different perspective, and maybe it will make a few people here chuckle.
I’ve been educating my HS senior about contrarian investment strategy. Don’t follow the herd. She’s starting to come around to my way of thinking! Which college will come back in 2021 with a solid plan? Its the ones that embarrassed themselves in 2020. 
Okay… Just for fun… 
You think UNC has in person undergraduate classes fall 2021?
This hinges on what is going on with the virus at the national level, but I think yes.
I think we will either have a vaccine that is rolling out or colleges like UNC will offer in person education for students who are willing to give up almost all of the social stuff. No bars, restaurants, frats, or clubs. Just studying.
Most students will opt to stay home where the rules aren’t as strict.
@2ndthreekids, I know a group of Harvard Jrs. that have headed to a CA beach town to take their classes there for the semester, a group of Denison sophs who have decided to spend the semester in the Outer Banks of NC, and a group of Amherst athletes who had alumni try to fund their stay in a South Carolina beach town. Although the AD quickly shot down the funding, the students carried on with the plan. It seems that beach towns have become a big draw this fall for college kids whose schools have gone remote.
If it’s true that students would be just as likely to get covid if they were not at/near college, then why are we seeing all these outbreaks at colleges? Why are all those UNC students infected now, when they weren’t infected when they arrived? Seems like being on or near campus makes it easier to host or attend superspreader events than it would have been in the students hometown.
Why have 11% of the students in Granville Towers (at UNC) already tested positive, and many more will because they haven’t all been tested yet? Was that kind of superspreader event going to happen if they’d all stayed home?
@2ndthreekids my college senior lives in a CA college beach town. She didn’t get to the beach much this summer because she was working FT but when she does go, she told me she and her roommate always go the the local dog beach ? Not only are there fewer people, but she loves seeing all the dogs since she misses our family dog. She tried to go to the “people” beach but said she didn’t feel comfortable with how many people were around.
Ah, but are those students going to attend 200 person parties in the beach towns? I don’t think so because there won’t be a critical mass of people to have them.
Cardinal Fang: just interested to know if you have an opinion on what UNC should do now about sending dorm residents home. Thanks in advance if you have time to answer.
@“Cardinal Fang” I do not mean to imply that that there will be super spreader events in these places. Just making an observation that the residents of beach towns who were looking forward to a decrease in population that comes with the end of summer, may not see the relief they were hoping for. I do believe that although there may not be 200 person parties, many of these students did not head to their destination with the attitude of forming a small pod. The groups I know are very social and I am sure they will find like minded kids to gather with in groups that are larger than the community would like to see.
Because some students must have been infected when they arrived and weren’t identified.
Dogs have become very popular “plus ones” in my neighborhood.
Because some students were infected and UNC gave them the opportunity to go to superspreader events.
This is simple. We shut down big events like conventions because we know that if one infected person goes to a convention they can infect a whole lot of other people.
So why are colleges bringing students together, when they know that some of those students are going to have big parties and some of those parties will be superspreader events? This was predictable and predicted. We know this will happen, and we know who is most like to have or go to those parties: the Greek members and potential members, because those are the students who most like large social gatherings.
Granville Towers, I’m told, is the UNC dorm for people in Greek organizations and people who want to join them.
People who have been around CC know that I dislike Greek organizations, but this is not an indictment of Greek organizations, particularly. To host or go to one of these big parties, a student has to (1) like big parties and (2) be inclined to break the rules to do something they like. Other student might be just as likely to break rules, but they’re less likely to even want to go to a big party. The temptation to have/go to a big party is more tempting to the average Greek kid than the average non-Greek. I don’t give someone credit for resisting a temptation that doesn’t tempt them.
I have no idea. They opened the can of worms; Mr. Fang points out they could read the label before they opened it.
But I do have an idea about the other big schools that are about to reopen: Don’t. You are not different. Your students also like to get together in large groups without masks so they can drink a lot. They will do this.
Interesting. A local resident told me about an online thread that showed a nearby beach town was the #1 ideal destination for college students to move while doing online classes for a semester and apparently many groups were posting about finding housing there. The weather makes it conducive to socializing outside, though my kids never mastered the ‘study at the beach’ skill (but studying outside on a patio is still pleasant).
The bit of advice…Speed test the wifi and investigate options before signing a lease.
“Northeastern warns students: Don’t even think about parties”
The letter was sent to 115 freshmen…and their parents.