I am not 100 percent sure. I know there are a handful of known cases from different commons (housing).
I heard my local state university has several classes where the students are present but the professors are on-screen via Zoom. Those classes have TAs whose only job is to manage Zoom. The students call them “Zoom TAs” ?
My kid at Williams has been sprung from quarantine. Test turn-around times were both around 24 hours. Classes start next week.
Updates from San Diego:
San Diego State has ordered on-campus students (approx. 2,600) to stay in their dorms for the Labor Day weekend; the university has requested that off-campus students living near campus do the same. Cases have gone from 64 to 213 in a few days. FYI, we’re in another heat wave here – temps hit 105 near campus – and although the newer dorms have A/C, I’m not sure about the older ones, and most housing in San Diego does not have A/C.
UCSD, which plans to host over 14,000 students on campus when the fall quarter begins at the end of the month, announced that they’ve discovered the virus in wastewater in one of the residential colleges, and are now following up with human testing. I’m not sure how many students are currently living on campus.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2020-09-05/college-students-masks-covid-19
Great hear! Looks like the attention to detail and dedication of the staff have paid off for the entire community.
There was an interesting article in the Stanford Daily today about how Stanford needs to dedicate more resources and support to the undergrad students, in particular, those students who are first gen, on financial aid or on pell grants during the COVID era. The article argues the university, by focusing on grad students and research and other revenue generating functions during this crisis, is showing that its not focused on the undergraduate experience. It’s pretty clear LACS have gone the beyond the call to support their financial aid students with financial support and reduced tuitions, as well as doing everything possible to have them on campus where they may be better off than at home.
This is an interesting idea! It was suggested by another poster way back upthread to maybe do something like this for K-12. Can I ask which state?
@Faithabove This is at North Dakota State.
Something like this could help underachieving k-12 kids catch up in their study’s. Say a 15 year old has an ambition to study engineering at a top college. He underachieved in middle school so is only on Algebra 1 on his schools math track but he reads internet resources in his spare time and thinks that he could manage AP calculus by his senior year. He could have the option of doing these TA lead zoom sessions around his regular classes, maybe evenings, weekends and vacations, and reach his goal that way.
I know this is the wrong movie, but close enough. I really wish Amherst had waited a couple of years to change its mascot.
“Amherst Plisskins”. Best.Mascot.Ever.
Who is doing the testing at Colgate and what is the protocol. That number seems really high whereas nearby Hamilton College which uses Broad Institute (just sayin’) is at zero.
Classes started Aug 27th. So the first 2 weeks are remote classes. Students are given supervised and scheduled 2 hours outdoor break in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon and are assigned an areas on campus. Meals are bagged and delivered to dormitories and other housing everyday. Laundry is scheduled too, like certain days assigned to a specific floor on each housing.
All students are in dorms, right? If so, the unauthorized gatherings happened in clear sight of residential life? How could the kids be partying if they aren’t allowed to leave the dorms? They had alcohol delivered? If all of that is the case then those kids deserved to be sent home. They should be suspended. It’s a small campus and that was such a blatant disregard of the rules. It’s even worse than a fraternity having a party at a house off campus.
My LAC is doing the same thing. Professors had the option to teach remotely, but we invited students back to campus. Parents are not paying to have their kids sitting around in a dorm room all day, so the goal for the college is to get on-campus students out of their rooms and into a classroom/lecture hall. It doesn’t matter if the professor is in-person or not. The rooms/halls are outfitted with updated technology that allows the professor to come in through Zoom on a large screen, while the students are in the room as usual. There are speakers and mics installed on the ceilings and walls to pick up student voices and allow conversation back and forth. I’m teaching f2f so I’m not sure how well it’s working, but the administration is happy students have some place to go regularly.
The information is based on Colgate’s dashboard. The students who moved into campus were tested via a home test kit provided by PrivaPath Diagnostics and Aegis Sciences Corporation, for their second and third rounds of testing. They also purchased a POCT rapid PCR testing as part of their plan. All information is based from their reopening plan found in the schools site. The thing is, with the at home testing kit, if students did improper collection of acsample, it will cause false negative. Or there is a possibility that at the time of initial testing the students were negative. The second round of testing detected that, which happened to one of my daughter’s friend who traveled by plane after the first testing was done, went to visit relatives from out of state prior to move in. Twenty four hours after move in, student was positive. Not all tests are the same too. There are so many out there that came out and given EAUs by FDA. There’s no gold standard for the virus testing although the one most used and fairly reliable is anything that uses PCR. Tests should be specific and sensitive. The higher the % of specificity and sensitivity for the virus, the better is the predictability. So hopefully schools are suing the lab that uses this methodology.
We used Broad Institute at one point this summer as one of our testing sites (I work in a lab-based hospital). We also do in house PCR testing for the virus in conjunction with Mayo Medical Lab, Quest and then Broad. We have since switched to our umbrella-licensed Masonic Medical Lab for majority of our testing as the turnaround time is less than 24 hours on weekdays. Oneida and Madison counties have stayed relative under 1% positivity rate so I am hoping things with Colgate’s positive case will go down soon. If only some of these students adhere to the guidelines! SMH
Is there any advantage for students to attend a zoom class, however interactive, in a classroom?
Friend’s son at BC, 6 of 8 kids in a suite have Covid. Her son still negative thankfully. Not sure all of them were actually tested by the school because a couple went home rather than quarantining in the suite. Those 2 developed symptoms after leaving the school and were then tested. So BC “official” count may not be completely accurate/up to date.
You can talk to other people.
If class is indoors, it’s an unnecessary risk for students and teachers, without any added benefit for anyone.
In my opinion, yes, absolutely. The students have much easier interaction with each other… the conversation flows much easier than over zoom. Also, there is the socialization aspect - you recognize students in the class fr your dorm, etc, and can collaborate later. Much less awkward than zoom.
Improves mental health by being with peers, and fosters sense of cohesion, both of which combat possible risk of depression.