I had to lol at “it’s time to let these adults show they deserve our respect.” I just keep seeing the female student at Penn State gyrating behind another student while dozens screamed around them. At least they were outside!
What a BRILLIANT preventative measure! It will keep students, faculty, staff, and all their families so much safer! In fact, EVERYONE will be safer! Less testing=less Covid, right? (Off to find a tool to remove my tongue from my cheek, and a bandage for my blown mind…)
(And what kind of message does it send to the college students who are already looking for “reasons” to ignore precautionary measures?)
Heh.
My daughter lives off-campus at her school and works in a hospital, so I’m sure she’s been exposed long ago. Her school announced a few days ago it would randomly test those living in the dorms two weeks after move-in. (There was no test prior to move-in). They don’t know what they don’t know, and they seem pretty okay with that (yikes).
I follow Michigan State because my high schooler is applying. The president, an infectious disease specialist, did an about-face two weeks before move in and denied all but a small portion of students the ability to live in the dorms. He is catching a lot of heat for “not even trying.” I think time will prove he did the right thing and saved everyone a lot of grief.
These kids are technically “adults” but their frontal lobes are not fully developed. Further, they are unfortunately not getting a whole lot of good role modeling or guidance from a good chunk of the over 25 crowd.
NC State (and the other members of the UNC system) didn’t have a choice. Face to face opening was mandated by the UNC system’s board of governors, which has unfortunately become a politicized body the past few years. It doesn’t erase the problem, but the blame should be cast further up the chain.
I might just been feeling extra cynical these days, but am I the only one who feels like there is some bait and switch going on? Sure we are a school of 10,000 but we are going to be on campus and have classes in-person, we can do this. And a couple of weeks into the semester they are online. They’ve already got my room and board payment. Too late for the kids to really do anything difference like take a year off, go to a local school, etc. Sigh…
That link says:
I didn’t have time to read through the hundreds of comments, but I think most people know that ideally every student should be tested before stepping foot on campus. It’s a shame that many colleges are not testing or don’t have the $$ to do so.
CDC just issued a report that summer camps in Maine were able to successfully open and contained any outbreaks through testing and quarantining campers.
Except all the over 25s at their respective schools have spent months communicating expectations via email, students had to sign conduct contracts and compacts, and I have to believe the over 25s spent a lot of time and money placing an insane amount of signage and plexiglass on these campuses in connection with Covid rules and expectations.
Bottom line is there are always rule breakers and people who think “no one will notice” or “it won’t matter this one time”. On the flip side colleges have spent decades ignoring and in some instances tacitly approving underage drinking and other rule infractions so it is a bit unrealistic to expect 100% compliance on the first go around.
No doubt. However, there is unfortunately conflicting messaging from others in the over 25 crowd such as parents, and other so-called adults in one’s community, and even in politics who may not be giving these kids the same message as their respective schools. That was my point. There is conflicting messaging so it’s not particularly clear what responsible “adulting” should actually look like. I do agree there will always be rule breakers and those who try to push limits. It just seems in this case, there will be a lot more of those because of this conflicting messaging.
S is at RIT. Covid19 testing was required to all students doing in-person classes. Those students coming from states included in the NYS travel advisories, were required to quarantine prior to moving to campus. If a student knows someone from a state not in the advisory then he/she can do the quarantine there but still need to do the testing within 14 days from the start of classes. Others were given an option to quarantine in and around RIT hotels where the school an agreement with. Health screening is required daily, with masks and social distancing, limited number of students per classes, some splits, some online. This week the school started their surveillance. My understanding is it’s random testing done in campus.
My D on the other hand Mia at Colagte University. Students have options to do remote learning or be on campus with hybrid classes. Prior to move in for those attending in person, the school sent each students at home covid19 testing that was sent back asap to school. All move in days where scheduled. Parents were not allowed in the bldg during move in. Mandatory 14 day quarantine for all students are required which will commence the day of move in and end Sept 8/9. Within 24 hrs of moving to campus, all students must get another covid19 test and a third one after 7-10 days. Meals are rationed for the duration of the quarantine. The first week or so for all students will be online due to quarantine. Masks are provided to students and social distancing required once quarantine is over. The school has a dashboard which provide information about risk levels on campus. Their dashboard provides more information(more transparent) than that of RIT.
Colagte is serious about everyone following the guidelines set by the school and the agreement signed by students and parents. In fact in today’s email from the school, they informed us that they sent home students who violated the policies set by the school for partying the other night. Classes haven’t even started yet! I say kudos for the school for taking this stance of “zero tolerance” when it comes to the pandemic. A lot of time, effort, planning and coordination has been done to open the campus safely and they continue to provide guidance to everyone to make this challenging situation a success. Keep the risk low for the school and community while able to enjoy some semblance of normalcy on campus.
D is at Rice and has been there 2 1/2 weeks.
She went down 2 weeks before classes started because she is an advisor for freshman orientation week. Probably a few hundred advisors came down. Then a week later the freshman arrived and finally this last weekend the rest of the students. About 1600 students on campus and about 1500 off campus which is not normal. Campus at less than 60% capacity. All students tested with rapid tests before they moved themselves into the dorms. No one allowed in the dorms unless tested. You cannot visit any floor but your own and must have on a mask if in someone else’s room (no eating or drinking in someone else’s room). Must always be distanced whether inside or out. All students tested weekly, including off campus students who want to spend time on campus. Masks must be worn at all times on campus unless in your room or eating, even outside. The outside rule will be revisited around Labor Day supposedly. Currently can only eat in your room or outside. That is a new rule that happened after a couple people tested positive early on.
So far people seem to be doing well following rules. Campus is dry and no one is clear for how long that will be. Not a lot happening on campus until everyone’s second test comes back since that one is more accurate than the rapid ones that were done at move in. I think they should all be done this week. There have only been 14 positive tests since August 1 (out of 8292) but only 3 this last week and none the last 4 days. Classes just started Monday though and the upperclassmen just arrived 5 days ago so the next couple weeks will be the real test of how things are going.
Bama update - D’s freshman friend and 3 roommates test positive for Covid at an off campus testing facility. They are staying in their dorm (on campus apartment with kitchen and 2 private baths). They are not telling the school and are feeling fine… Will quarantine in their apartment- ordering food and take delivery. How did they get to the off campus testing site? No clue.
I’m sure this is happening all over campus. Wonder how much of a rise the local Tuscaloosa Covid numbers will get as more and more students go this route.
It’s great that these friends are isolating in their dorm, but by not telling the school, it will have no idea how widespread the outbreak is - and it won’t be able to act accordingly. Also, this is not fair to other students in their dorm (even if they stay in their apartment).
Call me a cynic this morning but Alabama hasn’t done anything right so far so I doubt that they would “act accordingly” if these friends fessed up. Not saying they should not, but I wouldn’t expect Alabama to do anything differently. No dashboard. Likely no way that they are even collecting data in any organized way. Kids testing off campus because they can’t get tests at the school. No good answers right now for kids who get sick. Is the university going to respond at all??
UA system does have a dashboard! https://uasystem.edu/covid-19-dashboard/
Also this NYTimes summary of college cases is helpful:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html
University of Georgia dashboard includes results of its wastewater surveillance.
https://www.covid19.uga.edu/
Just to be clear- they tested off campus in order for the school not to move them to the quarantine dorms, not because they can’t get tests at the school. They knew that if they tested positive by the school they would be isolated elsewhere (Covid dorms) for 2+ weeks so found a workaround by going outside for testing. I’m not agreeing with anything they did, just sharing the realities on the ground.
Ack! My bad! I wonder what their advice is for kids who are sick or rooming with sick kids? I know at Auburn, they are directed to call to get an appointment with the health center for a test but kids can’t get through to make an appointment and then have to find other testing. That’s what happened with these friends at Alabama too. So they go off campus to get a test and then what? At Auburn, there’s no directive to stay in place or go to quarantine dorm or go home. The last my friends heard, kids are going home or staying in their rooms (but I’m guessing those in their rooms aren’t doing a very strict quarantine).
That number of Alabama’s dashboard cannot be correct if kids are having to go off campus for tests. Why bother having a dashboard? Dashboard are only as good as the testing plan.
How are the Bama girls going to explain to their professors their 14 day absence from classes? (My guess: They’re not…they’re going to head back out soon. I;ve heard of another very similar story, different school, after 3 days when they felt better they were back to normal life). Then again, maybe attendance is completely out the window this semester.