I would think the campus would be in good shape so far since undergrads haven’t yet moved in for Fall quarter…
Opinion piece by a UNC senior: “My university botched the pandemic. What does that say about how it sees its students and community?”
My son also had problem with the zoom outage. First class went as planned and he was signed into the second but apparently the instructor couldn’t get in so he emailed the class and told them it was cancelled. This is going to be fun. Every school in the country is going online and they are all (or mostly) using zoom. As more and more classes start the semester the traffic is just going to grow. I wonder what happens if zoom can’t handle it.
Our public school district has switched from zoom to Microsoft teams. The teachers have been in training sessions throughout the summer. I’m optimistic that the fall remote experience will be better than the spring.
A big point of contention in our district is what the daily schedule will look like - we find out tomorrow.
The Board of Governors…and the school president (who did not fight it strongly…I guess he wants to keep his job, ugh). botched the opening of UNC. Not the professors. Not the scientists. Not the Dept of Health. Not the majority of students.
The professors sued the system. The scientists on campus voiced strong warnings. The Dept of Health said to begin remotely. The students on campus were on a slip-n-slide and (wrongly) thought it would be safe. Yes there were some off campus parties…those kids clearly did not follow the rules.
I feel bad for the students who followed the rules. It’s very upsetting.
Again…it’s a public school and cannot make its own rules.
It was the testing plan that failed. Any college that opens without 100% churn weekly in testing the entire population will fail. Surveillance testing is needed in order to reopen residential colleges successfully.
Looks like many schools/teachers/professors etc aren’t handling high velocity change very well. Schools need to innovate to deliver educational value. The problem that I see with many schools is that they feel the only way to teach is the way they have always taught (pre-covid), so they try to package that up using Zoom and the results may not be so good.
If you think that Khan academy is your competition, maybe what (and how) you’re teaching needs to be reevaluated.
Very interesting to watch this unfold…educational evolution
Yes …the testing plan failed. But…why didn’t the BOG make sure that the system had a testing plan in place? Why didn’t the president demand a testing plan (I assume he works for the BOG)? Why didn’t they listen to the public health officials? The scientists? They have a campus filled with brilliant minds…that the BOG seems to have ignored. There were meetings all summer discussing a reopening plan…the “powers that be” did not listen to the experts. They wanted to open. Period. We see how that plan panned out over the past few months throughout the country.
I live in NY. SUNY needed a testing system…as per the state. Why didn’t N.C. demand the same?
It’s the whole UNC system…not just Chapel Hill. I am hearing from parents with kids at multiple schools within the system.
I’m almost speechless. But, no. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. There are some colleges where the gyms and libraries and dining halls are opened, but, they’re depending on stringent enforcement of social distancing in order to continue doing so. And, those are the schools that some posters already think are courting disaster. Maybe, it’s because I’m a native New Yorker, but I’ve never had a problem being heard from six feet away. LOL.
Just Face timed with S18 who drove himself to school (Colby) Parents are not allowed in the dorms, so there was really no reason for us to drive up, but it was still strange. He said testing was quick and easy (they were also tested prior to arrival). He is now in his dorm which is an 2 year old absolutely gorgeous apartment with four single bedrooms, (each with a full sized bed), large full kitchen and living area and two bathrooms. It should not be much of a hardship waiting for test results there. He seemed incredibly happy to be back. Parents have been reporting that the citizens of Waterville, don’t like to comply with the mask mandate. That is something I had not considered. Maine has had very few cases, but I still find it concerning.
Major zoom outages this morning, though it may be improving
I learned a lot during this crisis. I learned that if you attend a public university, you need to investigate what goes on at the state level. That is where many of the decisions are made.
I guess I always knew this…I just never really thought about it until now.
And for the record…my daughter received an outstanding education.
Northeastern charges a lot of money to be there. They can afford to test. Public universities are a different situation- where is the money coming from to test? D18 had to provide her insurance prior to getting her test at UCF. They dinged our insurance first- if it paid then great for UCF!!! I think that’s horrible- you open, you let them in dorms- you should cover testing!
She is now going to a state site that is free, since UCF doesn’t require her to test anymore. The problem with the state site is a 5 day turn around.
Public universities and K-12 are under a lot of pressure to open. How many of them have been given the actual funding to do it safely?
At least at FSU, now, zoom has come back up and my D is currently in class. So hopefully, whatever happened earlier has been resolved nationwide. My younger D has a zoom class later this afternoon on the west coast, so fingers crossed there are no more kinks to be worked out.
An update re: fraternity rush at FSU. I have contacted the director of greek life there and he reassured me that all greek rush activities are to be virtual. This seems positive. Interesting that the guys themselves are talking about it very differently “on the ground” there. We shall see how this goes. With all the current news of fraternities getting suspended on other campuses, one would hope there is no deliberate intent on the part of the fraternities at FSU to disregard the rules.
Duke released week 2 numbers. Tested 2,279 previously tested students and found 2 positives. Also tested 2,218 incoming grad/professional students for the first time and found 10. Staff/faculty: tested 301 randomly all negative and 130 symptomatic or contact traced and found 10 positive.
The staff/faculty 10 worried me a bit as risk to staff/faculty is a big concern with higher risk factors until I read the release with it and realized half of the positives are remote teaching and haven’t been on campus at all since March.
Overall student .27% and faculty/staff 1.8%
@homerdog - ND update for today is interesting. Daily positive rate was 8%, overall positive rate is 13.9%. They updated the dashboard to shows “Diagnostic tests” and “Surveillance tests”. They have completed 1151 surveillance tests at this point. So they are starting to seek out the asymptomatic patients with this testing.
My son’s perception of the 2 week pause in F2F is that it served as a wake-up call to many of the students. He did have a friend in his dorm that had close contact with a positive case (his girlfriend). The testing center would not initially test him. He chose to self-isolate by camping in a tent outside the dorm. After a day or two, they finally tested him and he was negative. So, testing can still be a challenge. It would seem this guy should have been near the top of the priority list to test. For whatever reason, he was not.
Again, I think we are seeing the differences in geography. Our kids have been seeing friends without masks here all summer. Not six feet apart. Very few cases in our town. Two last week. My H has been going to the gym for six weeks now. You have to make an appointment and they only allow 15 people in at a time but no masks required once you are on a machine. Movie theaters opening in Illinois. I’m sure they let very few people in and you have to wear a mask but, still, they are opening. XC, tennis, swimming, golf all competing. No masks during practice or games. So you’re aghast at my suggestions? No one here is testing three times a week and we are not having surges.
Great news! He doesn’t have covid. Or he does have covid and could spread it to five people tomorrow.
I’m sorry to keep harping on this, but the negative test is meaningless in this context. There is a reason why people who are exposed need to quarantine. A person does not test positive right after they are exposed, even if they are infected. The median incubation period is five days to symptoms, which means about four days to testing positive. That’s the median, so half-ish of people who are infected won’t test positive four days after exposure.
TBH, I don’t think it’s about geography. It’s about personal experience. I hope when I go to Heaven that it resembles your neighborhood, Homer. 