Now that our S19’s saga is over… he FINALLY got his results and of course he’s negative. There’s one thing that all these dashboards are missing, and I think it’s really important. How many tests are still waiting for results? Kenyon has conducted almost 1500 tests, with only 1 positive (a member of staff/faculty working remotely). Yet, there’s no mention of how many tests are still outstanding.
On a campus of approx 900, let’s say 50 kids are walking around still not knowing if they’re positive or not. That’s a big deal!!
I got a kick out of the Wesleyan “Arrival Week 2020” video. Everyone looks so excited. Didn’t spot as many tents as at Amherst, but Wesleyan is known for its high physical plant to student ratio. They planned for 2400 students returning so I don’t think they will have any trouble scaling up:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/news/
Am I understanding this correctly, from Arizona State:
“323 are in isolation on the Tempe campus. A total of 9,645 students live on the Tempe campus”
So, these 323 students who are in isolation on the Tempe campus, are all of them students among the 9645 students who live on campus? Or does it include students who tested positive and weren’t living on campus, but were moved to campus isolation? 323/9645 is 3.3%, which would be pretty high.
Arizona State’s public information that I can find is not straightforward. I want to know, how many students have been tested? What fraction of them turned up positive? But I cannot discover this information. Many Arizona State students do not live on campus, do not have in-person classes, and were not required either to have a test or to report a positive result if they did have a test.
Colorado College goes online for the few weeks and most likely for the remainder of the semester.
Interesting that the health department was behind the quarantine and then the school going online.
Baylor had 390 positive out of 2737 test last week. A friend’s son is there and his entire dorm is quarantined due to many of the residents testing positive.
@AlwaysMoving it wouldn’t be much different than the triggers the state of NY has put in place for colleges. Any school that hits those rates (5% or 100) would be forced to go online for 2 weeks.
Gettysburg has just put all students in quarantine until at least the end of the week.
Breaking: @UofSC now has 1,017 active student cases of COVID-19 and 9 employee cases. The total of 1,026 is double last week’s 557 cases.
Gettysburg quarantining all students.
To respond to the current situation, beginning immediately, we are moving to an all-student quarantine effective 10 p.m. tonight through at least the end of the week.
Students should remain in their rooms and should only leave to:
Pick up food from Servo, the Atrium, or the Bullet Hole to take back to your room
Use the restroom
Go to your scheduled COVID-19 testing appointment
You aren’t worried about the large apartment building near campus that is apparently filled with MIT students? The one named on our parent facebook page (I won’t specify here.)
I am hoping and praying the Freshmen/Sophomores/Juniors who are renting in Cambridge, follow President Reif’s challenge to get our response to Covid right. If they let their guard down, we have no hope of being invited to campus in the spring.
@TheVulcan Half of D’s classes are in-person, and the size limit rules out less than 10% of classes, because Amherst’s classes are so small. Most classes that are online are so by Professor choice. And not all of the classes are in tents; both of D’s classes are indoors, with the exception of one weekly discussion section held in a tent outside.
When we were on the Haverford campus yesterday, we saw the kids sitting around outside similar to the pictures in the email. The pictures can be deceptive–I would say the kids were almost all separated by 6 feet. I’m always kind of amazed when I’m in the (long) line at the grocery store, that the 6-foot-apart markers seem like they’re too close together. But they are 6 feet apart.
There were a couple of students sitting in camp chairs outside near the entrance to my son’s dorm. They were there for hours–I’m assuming they were there to help new people, give directions, etc. They were wearing masks; however their chairs didn’t seem to be properly distanced–maybe 3 feet away from each other. I thought that was odd. I’m not arguing the efficacy of the 6-feet apart rule; just that if you’re doing some official campus duty, maybe you should follow the campus rule 
Lock Haven University, a state system school in PA, suspends classes for 2 weeks due to positivity rate about to top 5%. http://www.lockhaven.edu/News/lhuremoteinstruction_09.01.20.html?fbclid=IwAR26oqTCuhNmgq84VaT-pRJSCrUgabvYv8sUygw3WeylZOFo35u0wlzTxO4
Obviously, students are legal adults, and can do as they please.
I am worried for them, but hoping MIT approach of not allowing off-campus students access to campus will protect the rest of the community from the consequences of their decisions.
According to the BC website, as of August 31, BC has performed 18,700 tests, tested 8,570 undergrads, with 12 positive tests, 10 of which are undergrads. 5 in isolation on campus and 5 isolating at home. Seems like a good start. Their plan is very ambitious…everyone invited back to campus, with roommates and a return after Thanksgiving break.
https://www.wglt.org/post/how-isu-faring-covid-19-compared-other-midwest-college-towns
As of Tuesday, Illinois State is reporting 1,023 positive cases – almost 5% of the student body. This article has a good discussion of cases at midwest state universities and their surrounding areas along with a chart of cases as a percent of student body at many midwest state universities (mostly Illinois).
It’s being reported that at Purdue 83% of the positive cases are totally asymptomatic and the remainder have just very very mild symptoms.
74 total cases in the last week (142 rolling total since August). Positivity rate 2.86% for the past week. I think some of the random testings are starting to hit the dash board.
President Daniels said in the interview that he feels that if they can keep up good isolation and quarantine practices that they should make it through the semester. He also noted that the message from suspending all those students week one seems to have worked and that it was a quiet weekend on campus.
Time will tell but I hope he’s right.
Purdue had students back to campus for the summer session in mid July, 8000 or so freshmen have been back for three weeks, and nearly all 38K students have been back for two weeks now.
I agree it’s too soon to predict how the rest of the semester will go but they are off to a good start in my book. The pre-arrival testing probably helped them avoid a big spike that some other schools saw at the two week mark.
I think Purdue has a chance at being successful because Daniels has made it very clear that he’s not playing games. I think this leadership is essential and really the only way a school has a chance of making it through the semester.
Oklahoma State University (where my kid’s boyfriend attends), which has most classes in person:
Week ending 8/23 (1st week of classes): on-campus testing had 48 positive students (10.5% of total tested) and 1 positive employee (1.2% positive), plus 108 positives among students and employees tested off-campus.
Week ending 8/30 (2nd week of classes): on-campus testing had 117 positive students (16.4% of total tested) and 4 positive employee (2.3% positive), plus 94 positives among students and employees tested off-campus.
This week they’re implementing randomized testing of 500 students (out of 24,000 total students, so about 2% of the student population).