They push the students into the community but isn’t it better to have one person stay for 4 months than to have a different person stay in a hotel room every night for those same 4 months?
The hotel says they are going to enforce the college’s physical distancing rules, but what power will they have? They can’t expel the student, don’t have RAs on each floor to keep students from visiting each other’s rooms, can’t even inspect the rooms for alcohol or drugs.
I don’t see how being locked in a hotel room near a campus is better than living at home. At least at home one usually has access to a full kitchen, a backyard, more take out dining options, laundry, and the family pets.
Re Northwestern – Students may have to sign an agreement saying no drug use etc. Or at least abide by federal and state laws, similar to what any guest would have to do?
I’m not so sure it is a bad thing that the hotel/school is seeking alternative options to move forward. No one is being forced to go live there so if a student prefers being home, then stay home.
Also, not every student comes from such a conducive household with access to full kitchen, backyard, laundry and family pets. There are quite a few, if not many, that have more less optimal situations.
Students may sign a form to not have drugs or alcohol in the hotel room, but can anyone check? In my daughter’s dorm (suite) they came in and check for ‘illegal’ cooking equipment like griddles and coffee pots that didn’t have self shut offs.
Of course they can stay home if they want. I just don’t see why students want to return to ‘near campus’ experiences that are so restrictive that there appears to be no fun involved at all. Why would you want to be in a hotel room for 4 months with only ‘grab and go’ food when you could stay home with mom cooking, the laundry there, more than one room to be in, maybe high school friends to hang out with? I realize not everyone has the Beaver Cleaver home life, but those who don’t probably don’t have $5 grand for 4 months in a hotel either.
I’m watching the SUNYs. Plattsburgh removed something like 43 students from dorms on Wednesday due to a party they had at a closed park on Friday.
SUNY Oneonta is getting help from Upstate Medical to test all their students and faculty. They have over 100 positive cases which triggers the 2 weeks of all online classes rule.
SUNY New Paltz had 1 case the first week of classes, contact traced and found 2 more. They’re now requiring tests for all students and faculty who are on campus. The 3 positive students apparently played off campus pick-up basketball games in the public park of a nearby town (on 2 different days) with 9 other New Paltz students. All 12 are being quarantined and could be suspended. There’s no word on whether local residents joined the games.
We know two students whose Ivy League school went all virtual for undergrads. TheIr parents rented them an apartment in Ithaca so that they can be part of “college life” at Cornell.
@vpa2019 In the case of students renting out apartments, I would say it is the parents pushing it out to the community and not the school. Students can stay home and take their classes online. There is no “need” for them to be renting apartments or homes to do this. The communities do not need that extra influx of potential spread but parents are enabling and encouraging it. If students use proper protocols while renting it can work but they are not under the school’s guidelines at that point and are free to do what they want in the community.
Some communities want the students back, for economic reasons. One example…the President of Williams mentioned this is the case for Williamstown merchants/biz owners in one of her summer communications.
Exactly, these kids know exactly what the college experience is and what it isn’t. Let’s give them some credit, they don’t live in a bubble. With social media so prevalent, they know what’s going on, believe me, and most times they are one step ahead of us parents.
Anyway, are they in prison? I am thinking the students can go out, grab a coffee or hang at the park with friends (social distancing and masks etc) as they would have been anywhere else?
Am sure there are laws on what the hotel can check and not check - ie reasonable suspicion, etc. Don’t know. What do landlords do for regular rentals? They can’t check on cocaine use etc
Agreed, its expensive, but those who can afford, fine. Great to have options!
People making lemonade out of lemons - putting empty hotel rooms to use, employing workers and caterers/food suppliers etc.
I just saw that one of my state’s large public universities has a lot of cases. They are encouraging their positive-testing students to return home. So they could be spreading the virus throughout the state and bringing it to their home communities.
Maybe true in some cases but certainly not all. Believe me, my son wanted to go back to his college town. He did not want to spend anymore time in his childhood bedroom even if it came with food and laundry service. Many kids this age have a strong drive to get out of home. Why do you think its parents pushing it?
In an area where a significant number of students live off campus, the community around the school is economically dependent on the students. There are many businesses who rely on the business that students bring in. I remember seeing something about University of Alabama where they were resisting shutting down despite a lot of cases because of the effect on local businesses. Many businesses are happy to have the students back in town.
True in the sense of how many kids can afford to live independently in their college towns without parents paying for it? My daughter would love to live on her own- it would even be beneficial in tangible ways to her mental health. She can’t afford it and neither can we. Parental wealth seems to be a factor to me- that gives them control.
Maybe the hotel is letting them out to do outside things, but some of the dorms are not doing that. Colorado College is not, they are inside for 2 weeks. They can look at Pike’s Peak but they can’t go and climb it. I get why the hotel is doing it, they are trying to stay alive. I understand the students want to go back to school. Early in the spring students (and parents) were vowing to do whatever it took to get back to campus, but now that they are asked to stay in the room and they aren’t willing to do that.
I read above that students were (gasp) playing basketball and are now banned from the school. Here it is okay to play basketball (tennis, soccer) in public parks and it’s been allowed privately all summer.
Just saying there may be more freedoms at home. And more physical room.
I was going to word it differently. You all are straying off topic. Please get back to focus on individual schools. There are other existing threads were the OT musings are more appropriate.
I’d be livid if I were an Evanston resident. The University is proposing to set up Hotel Superspreader in the middle of the city.
And yes, it is worse to have a group of college students living in a hotel for four months, socializing with one another and spreading covid to each other, than it is to have individual travelers who don’t know one another stay for a night. The college students will keep spreading covid to each other. Someone will get infected, they’ll infect others, they’ll infect others, because they’ll all be interacting with one another.
All classes are moving to remote delivery for the remainder of Block 1 and most classes will be in remote delivery for the remainder of the Fall Semester. We hope to provide in-person or hybrid fall classes for a limited number of students to take for their degree progression.
We will significantly reduce the number of students living on campus.
On-campus students should plan to leave campus by Sept. 20 unless they are already enrolled in one of the few in-person or hybrid classes we hope to provide. We will let those students know on Thursday if they have permission to stay.
“Despite our rigorous and successful testing, retesting, and response protocol, and our low incidence of positive cases, the El Paso County Public Health Department has required us to quarantine entire residence halls. The department tells us to expect rolling waves of large quarantines going forward.”
NO, it is not Colorado College that flipped. Its the county health officer. What is their rationale if the school is saying that they have low incidence of “positive cases”?
Interesting.
Let’s reword it – Colorado College was mandated to move to remote delivery blah blah.
About Colorado College: is the health officer’s ruling a surprise? Was the college not in contact with the health officer about what would be required in the case of infections?