My kid’s school doesn’t have a lockout ability. Doors are either locked or not. So I guess that could work for some schools that are outfitted that way.
It seems this method of checking apps works now while many classes are remote and foot traffic is low, but I thought the whole purpose of this daily testing was to get back to normal. Once you have 300 kids trying to enter a building at the same time to get into a lecture halls the thought of a guard checking each person’s app seems more difficult.
Presumably you enter your high school once or maybe twice a day and all your classes are inside the same building. So you need to set up guards at a couple doors and you have one really busy time of the day when all the students are arriving. In college, every class is likely to be in a different building. Every building would need guards and every student would have to be scanned multiple times a day. The same process would be much more difficult.
This idea is the one that makes the most sense to me. No one has to monitor all the doors. A student found in a building without a wristband would be asked to leave and go get one. It still means lines around campus to get your wristband but if you only have to do it once before your first class it might be workable. Of course, once winter arrives and people are wearing heavy coats, sweaters, and gloves, it may be hard to tell who has a wristband and who doesn’t. I also don’t envy the people who get to sit outside at the tables in below freezing weather to check phones and give out wristbands.
They’ve grown 20% and it was done by lowering the standards, so their plan was to become more selective which would cut enrollment. The problem is they just had the cut made for them and they didn’t become more selective.
Not necessarily. Suppose they were more selective in their acceptance rate this fall. Suppose the enrollment decrease was not freshman and who did not enter during their more selective phase. They already had more than 10% international students. I have to assume not all of them dropped out for good and some will return next semester or next year. I can not imagine that most schools are not dealing with this including the ivys and I would expect to see similar numbers acrosss the board. What I am interested in is are there schools that have seen an increase in enrollment this semester because they were online and did not have to house students.
Don’t most residence halls have someone on duty that could check that phone app and pass out wristbands? That would reduce lines outdoors. Commuters would need another place to get theirs though.
Rice’s rooming setup varies but where D lives the majority of students have roommates. The typical room there are two doubles connected by a bath. They have a .09% positivity since August 1st.
I went to the doctor’s office yesterday and had to pass through a sensor that both took my temperature and checked to see if I was wearing a mask properly. It bleep-blooped and I was allowed to enter.
I’m sure there are automatic ways of doing this. Like an EZ Pass for humans when you stick out your phone that has the correct qr code.
@PetraMC - in the past few days you replied to my statement about “zero hospitalizations” and your concern about spreading the virus to the community. I look at it exactly the opposite with Notre Dame. They have been at school for almost 6 weeks. Between diagnostic and surveillance tests, they have effectively tested the entire student body since arrival. I contend that at this point, the virus is being brought to campus by off-campus sources (students, faculty or staff). How can I make that case? They have been there 6 weeks, the incubation is a max of 21 days. They are not allowed to have outside visitors, so the only external source is the surrounding community. Further, when they shut down F2F classes, their positivity rate dropped like a stone. I see it as a case of the community infection rate impacting the school.
There have been 6 total student cases at RIT so far, and the freshman dorms are doubles. Now some kids did not show up, or some went home already because their classes are online and they dont have that much of a social life right now, but doubles are allowed.
Duke turns off your Duke card if you don’t submit your symptom monitoring every day. Not only will you have no access to classrooms, but dining etc. I’m not sure you can even access your own dorm room.
@Cheeringsection D18’s dorms don’t- they have a card and a code to get in, made having a human unnecessary. I imagine many schools dorms are like this. I do think there are some schools that if you don’t do the self check are not enabling their cards- maybe that would be a solution.
I don’t know if Bowdoin, Amherst or Williams will change their tune on doubles based on other schools. NESCACS all knew each other’s plans and those three schools decided against doubles when the others went ahead with them. Even if having doubles “works”, these three might still decide to stay with the most conservative of plans. They are the wealthiest of the NESCACs and must feel like they can afford to not have room and board income for all classes.
Bowdoin is planning on bringing sophs, juniors, and seniors back to campus for spring and that seems like it will be more kids than are currently there. So, either they have more space for more singles but they aren’t being used right now or they will need to do doubles for that to happen. I trust they have a plan. We were told we would know that plan by early Dec and then kids can do housing and choose classes.
Well, we already know that Amherst and Bowdoin may have to resort to some double occupancy rooms if they expect to re-open at close to normal enrollment. right now Amherst is only operating at 50% capacity (900/1800) and Bowdoin is what, at 33%?
@usma87 I wasn’t just talking about you saying “zero hospitalizations.” That sentiment is all over this board–that kids don’t get that sick so we should just let them get on with it.
ND started out with a lesser plan but then they course-corrected and that’s fantastic. If anything, it shows that getting cases way down CAN be done, and quickly. Same for Cornell. It wasn’t looking too great there, either, and they cracked the whip big time (according to my many on campus sources.) Looks positive now.
I don’t think it matters at this point whether or not the virus is coming from students (or staff) who just moved to campus or who are spending time off campus and picking it up there. It’s the congregant living that makes it potentially explode if they don’t keep an eye on it. Same for all of these other schools that have a handful of cases. That can change quickly in high-risk living conditions. It’s catching it ASAP that matters.
@CTTC Yes, it was very cool! It detects faces and temperature in a little monitor.
Yeah, all singles is silly. Kids are getting together with cohorts anyway, so having doubles makes more sense. Kids will not be ALONE for an entire year on campus. Testing and having Family units within dorms is the best solution.
I think Bowdoin is probably at about 40% capacity with freshmen, some seniors doing research and students who are better off on campus than at home. I just don’t know if (a) Bowdoin is using all possible rooms as singles right now or (b) they have more available and are not using them. If it’s “b”, then they could have more kids back in the spring (freshmen are planned to go home) and still use all singles or mostly singles. For all I know they have a dorm or two completely empty right now.
^^ I think most schools need to leave a few dorms free for isolation/quarantine dorms, unless they are using local hotels for that. The more conservative the approach, the more rooms they need for that. But since the smaller schools are doing so well this fall, perhaps they won’t need as much isolation space and ave more room to invite more students back
Almost all Bowdoin first-years have a roommate during normal times when the basic building block is the “quad” or two double bedrooms and a study space for four people (apparently, there is also something called the “quint” which involves a fifth person probably taking over the study space.)
In order to supply first-year - plus an additional 200 students - with singles, they had to spread them out among 16 different dormitories instead of the pre-pandemic freshmen “bricks” which consists of six dorms. It’s hard to imagine such a risk-averse approach would entail using the 16 story Coles Tower as a residence. But, that’s where the bulk of Bowdoin’s singles are located.