The post above about Brown (along with the posts about Jessica Zhang at Cornell and other examples) raises a concern for me regarding school in the fall, especially for freshmen.
I think most of us on here agree that it is wrong at this time for the college students to be throwing/attending large parties unmasked, etc. And so we are sympathetic to the non-party-ing kids who are angry with their classmates who they feel may be either risking their health or jeopardizing their chance to stay on campus. Fine.
But I am very concerned about the toxicity of this “us” vs. “them” attitude, and what kind of lasting impact it may have. NYTimes had an article today about colleges encouraging students to “snitch” on their classmates, etc. It may be the right thing to do (to turn in students who are not following rules), but I worry about the lasting damage to the bonding of the classes. Kids who might in another year enjoy each other (even if in different social circles) and have a sense of unity and excitement about their new school together, are now pitted against each other with pretty hostile judgment. I just think it’s unhealthy for these students who should be appreciating each other and eager to meet (masked, social-distanced of course!) to feel like they are constantly being judged for either being a snitch/goody two-shoes or being irresponsible and walking too close to a classmate. Turning in parties is one thing, but I believe a lot of this judgment extends to being mad if someone sees 4 people sitting perhaps only 5 feet away from each other outdoors, or other more minor infractions. I am worried about the impact of this on campus culture this fall, and that it may form irreparable rifts among students that otherwise probably wouldn’t have formed. I wonder if others are hearing/worrying about this impact.
PS No idea if Brown will open on campus in October as planned, but RI is in pretty stable shape/declining. Yesterday’s data showed a 1.3% test positive rate for the state (quite excellent, I believe), with 53 positives (which equates to 50.04 cases per million), and the trend is continuing to improve. Our larger neighbor to the north, MA, had 354 positives yesterday (51.37 cases per million; 1.6% positive), which is also good, but just funny because MA makes RIers quarantine before entering ;-). But anyway, I don’t think the covid situation in the state will be the cause if Brown doesn’t reopen on-campus; our governor sounds supportive and the covid situation is relatively fine.
Agree. But not all of the above will want the vaccination. Also, which entities will require vaccination for their employees/students? And can they require if phase 3 trials have not been completed?
Most of the cases I’m hearing about at kids’ college are from small group transmissions. Dinner with just a few friends, hanging out at someone’s apartment, etc. It is not just the animal house frat parties, though those don’t help.
We know sick kids and have heard reports of volumes of cases in private dorms, apartments and greek houses. Kids are told to not use University testing to avoid publicity. This is a big part of the reason the dashboard is a farce, it reports fewer than 20 cases in last 10+ days.
Some are refusing to get tested because they want to keep going out. Everyone has a different standard for quarantining. I don’t see how return to school can be successful without very specific guidelines AND enforcement, neither of which are present above.
Colorado College is blaming the health department (in today’s paper too) but other colleges in El Paso County are continuing with in person classes. The Air Force Academy has been on campus since July. The cadets all stay on campus but other personnel go onto the campus every day. UCCS has students on campus. There are a few other colleges and community colleges in the county that are operating.
Maybe because Colorado College is private while UCCS is state and the Airforce Academy is federal so the county doesn’t have jurisdiction or authority?
CU Boulder said they would adhere to the local health department rules, but I don’t know if UCCS did the same.
Re JMU…it seems pretty clunky. They say that kids can stay if they fill out an exemption form…wonder how easy/hard it will be to get one. And to go home potentially just for a month, with no refund info yet? I would imagine that many many kids (and even parents) might prefer having their kids try for the exemption and stay. Looks like only 30% live in on campus housing, anyway.
@EmptyNestSoon2 , I understand your concerns, but I don’t know that this will last long enough to matter. I have read reports about false accusations (that are being called “bullying”), RAs getting a very hard time as they try to enforce rules, and heck, the Jessica Zhang snapchat solidifies your “us vs them” divisions brewing. Our kids unfortunately aren’t immune from the divisive, judgemental overtones in today’s society. However…I don’t see the two-sides college situation lasting very long. Cases are being caught from the random testing, and LOTS of kids are being put in quarantine from being close contacts. It’s going to appear pretty soon that it can happen to anyone whether they are partying or not. I think it might become so prevalent to be in quarantine or positive that the stigma will be gone and any assumptions about how the positive or quarantine happened in the first place just won’t matter any more. I would like to hope that it will balance out and a “we’re all in this together” culture will emerge (wishful thinking, probably).
As I’ve mentioned before, the press (and this thread) don’t talk about colleges that are having success (,so far) - like Duke. Here’s an article about it. Wow, they have great testing, and that helps. Amazing - who would have thought?
Duke Health has a standard cash price of $39 for even the general public to get a covid test…much cheaper than the cash price in my area…I think the per test cost for students is considerably lower (and they are doing pool testing Having the hospital and labs on campus is considerably helpful. And the turnaround time has been quick, less than 24 hours each of the 4 x my D has been tested thus far.
I think costs come way down for schools able to process the tests in house. Purdue had their vet lab certified over the summer to run human samples (as did Cornell and many other schools).
If this has already been shared let me know and I’ll delete this post:
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Yale news:
The school year kicked off on Monday, and with it a cohort of 1,267 first-year students started their journey at Yale — a class 21 percent smaller than its original size.
In previous years, around 3 percent on average of incoming first-year students elected to postpone their first semester at Yale. Last year, 51 first-year students originally accepted into the class of 2023 postponed their matriculation. This year, 341 students previously accepted into the class of 2024 elected to take gap years.
Despite the nearly sevenfold increase in students taking gap years, Director of Outreach and Communications Mark Dunn said that “the admissions office has no plans to reduce the number of admissions offers in the coming year, despite the larger group of postponing students who will join the class of 2025 next fall.”
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So…I wonder what their plans will be for housing in F21. Assuming (hoping) the norm will be to return to living on campus by then.
Duke’s plan is working but they had to drastically cut back the number of students on campus. That’s tough for the students left out, but maybe next year schools will rotate and give each class a semester on campus.
D’s school has a little over 1,700 students on campus who are being tested twice a week. There will be approximately 12 weeks in the semester. If they continue to test at that rate throughout the semester, that’s about $1M without including the employees test costs.
All this with less income from tuition and room & board.
What will tuition fees be like next year? Fundraising? Endowments?
So $500 per student for the fall semester. Easily covered by the many furloughed employees even at colleges that are bringing students back (less athletic staff, cafeteria staff, and other administrative staff). Even things like fall concerts are cancelled, and money saved.