@HamSBDad
There are no cases at Hamilton so far -correct?
Our son took no-stop flight and moved into an off-campus apartment 9 days ago. 2-bedroom / 2-bath, spacious for 2 young men to share. But I am prepared if one gets infected, another would get infected right away. Fall semester is all online but his music conservatory campus will be open from first day of semester for limited activities (mostly solo practices for large instruments by reservations) for off-campus students. We haven’t heard from his conservatory if those off-campus students must get tested or not before stepping into a campus. But they do require everyone who steps into campuses to get flu shot. Free or low-cost flu shot information will be coming soon.
Yesterday, we received a notice that his school found a cluster in off-campus housing near one of campuses by a student who traveled from his/her hometown recently. They didn’t say if there were any “parties” or “events” that caused a cluster but strongly encouraged off-campus students to return to home or be responsible adults on mask wearing and social distancing for public health. Even schools don’t have students on campuses, they sound like being very responsible to the community for their off-campus students’ behaviors.
@wisteria100 Looks like Colby had some upon arrival? This “dashboard” isn’t really clear to me but here it is. I don’t know if this includes all summer and up through today. Are these the pre-tests for students before they got to campus? Maybe the “inconclusive” ones are the ones that have been done but they don’t have results yet?
Inconclusive/Indeterminate likely means the test could not be read because the sample was too small or compromised in some way. So that person would have to be re tested.
At least that is how Broad defines it.
@wisteria100 That’s a lot of inconclusive tests. I don’t see that from any of the other colleges using Broad.
It really is a fine line with the positivity rates. A low rate should mean you can start to open things a bit, but at the same time some of the governors/mayors are very risk averse, with good reason as small embers can spread like wildfire before you know it. Gov Cuomo is very proud of the positivity rate that has been under 1% for some time now. But he takes that to mean that masks work so continue wearing them! And he is right on that point.
Broad has said that up to 5% of tests can be indeterminate, so Colby’s would fall into that range I think. And perhaps Colby is not administering the tests as carefully as other schools with fewer numbers of inconclusives?
Alabama and Auburn on verge of sending students home.
https://www.alreporter.com/2020/08/24/the-on-campus-semester-is-in-danger-at-both-alabama-and-auburn/
Alabama has 511 cases since Wednesday. They did entry testing of all students, uncovering 310 cases, and then they’ve found another 201 cases in students and staff that they didn’t catch the first time.
NC State has 27 cases of Covid in their sports department. They have paused athletic activities.
@amsunshine 159 out of 5732- 2.8% for UCF
Davidson had 3 students test positive out of 1607 (0.19%). Testing all students and staff weekly. Reports are that students are fully onboard with the mask mandate. Biggest complaint after 10 days on campus was that some freshmen were eating/picnicking in a group larger than 4 on the lawn outside the dining hall. If that is the worst infraction on campus, then Davidson has a fighting chance of making this work. Final group of upperclassmen arrive this weekend.
@twogirls
Our local SUNY college has a reopening plan. It does not have a testing plan. There are no plans for testing students once they’ve arrived on campus. Their plan states that they “may” require those showing symptoms to get tested. Apparently they’re relying mainly on wastewater testing, which won’t catch outbreaks among the half of students who rent apartments in town and don’t live on campus. Today was the first day of classes; the past week when most had moved in but they had nothing academic to do was a series of house parties. We’ll know in a couple of weeks how well that went…
I have 2 friends whose kids attend SUNY, and they both required testing prior to arrival. I guess all of the SUNY plans are different?
RIce just updated their dashboard (https://coronavirus.rice.edu/) which is nice because it was pretty useless before. They say it’s still a work in progress. They have had 12 students test positive since August 1st and 4 of those were in the last 7 days. They reported 1500 tests over the last 3 days with zero positives. That’s good news because it seems they contained those few positives last week which were not students testing positive when they arrived. They are keeping things pretty strict (no eating inside except in your room with your roommates, masks everywhere unless your in your room with you roommates, you cannot go onto any floor but your own, you can visit rooms on your floor but must distance and must wear a mask, etc). Campus is currently dry for awhile. They are being strict about off campus students coming inside residential common spaces until they have a couple tests done. I think they want to get another test or two done on the last of the returning students who arrived this weekend before they relax a few rules.
My D says the kids seem to be taking things pretty seriously and following the rules. I’m sure there are some who aren’t but so far I’m impressed. She’s actually somewhat bored and ready for homework! Classes started this week. Not sure what’s happening off campus but it’s not an easy place to have big off campus parties. The immediate area around Rice is VERY high end and the neighbors aren’t going to tolerate large college parties next door to their multi million dollar homes.
@“Cardinal Fang” my post included the phrase “if they use the same testing protocol”. And, I think the county and Notre Dame are similar in testing strategies. The main focus is on symptomatic in both locations. If anything, with Notre Dame starting surveillance testing, they have a broader net than the county. They should see more positive cases through testing of random students. The surveillance testing started last Friday, so its still early.
Is it a great comparison? Probably not. It’s a great deal closer than conjecture. Every parent and student has to judge for themselves. I am back to I am comfortable with my son at Notre Dame and the risk of COVID is no greater there than here in the county.
This is worrying. I’m not sure why any dormitory at any school would be different (I’m sure some will be spared, but I suspect many will not). The hard truth is that the residential college model may not work in 2020 with high levels of circulating virus nation-wide.
This fall is also natural experiment of sorts for colleges. We’ll see which strategies, if any, worked, and which did not. Hopefully, this will inform our approach for the spring and beyond.
@twogirls
Apparently so…this branch says “Students must attest to having no COVID-19 symptoms and no known infection. Students living in New York state or arriving from a state not under a travel advisory will be required to conduct a seven-day precautionary quarantine at home prior to coming on campus. Students will attest that they have quarantined and are symptom free.” Lots of attestation, but tests only if there are symptoms. Our mayor told the local paper that this past weekend was “very bad” with “hundreds or thousands” partying in the downtown neighborhoods.
Have there been any wide spread testing done in high density buildings in poor neighbourhoods?
Those UNC dorm figures don’t look good for the possibility of k-12 schools for our most vulnerable kids being able to open and the health of them and their families.
Most College students don’t HAVE to live in cramped dorms but people in poverty get housed where they get housed.
When did your D move back to college?