UChicago’s latest video update on their return to campus plans and what the fall will look like on campus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO3RTKxi3cs&feature=youtu.be
Wesleyan’s campus newspaper is up and running, itself a great testament to life returning as close to normal as possible. Among the maiden articles is an eye-opening one on Broad Institute:
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What a well written piece!
And I love how Wesleyan (and Colby) have a “green” level of activity and Bowdoin’s “best” level is labeled “yellow”. Green sounds much more optimistic.
Caution should always be part of the messaging. Green means go, which given the way this virus spreads is never the case. You can’t tell people we’re in the “green”, and then tell them all of the things they shouldn’t be doing.
Green is optimistic, but optimism isn’t warranted yet. When they have everyone back on campus, interacting in person and participating in all activities…they’ll be in the Green.
Pitt active cases in isolation have dropped to 69. Number of new positive cases from random surveillance testing in the past week: one.
Good news from Carleton. Students came back over the past week or two and all got tested upon arrival. 1511 tests, 2 positive (0.1%). A good way to start. Second tests are mostly administered and results will be available by the 20th. The conclusion of Dean Livingston’s email to parents:
“I would be remiss not to mention on this sunny September day how refreshing it is to have your students back on campus again. Thank you for your continued dedication to making the residential college experience possible this fall.”
Maybe, just maybe, this might work…
Two of D’s hybrid courses moved back to fully F2F this week. She’s thrilled! Labs weren’t as bad as she thought…didn’t need googles and the face shield over the mask, just the face shield. Virtual career fair went well too. The big difference is that companies aren’t rushing to do interviews because they aren’t on campus and leaving so most places said they’ll start interviewing in October (not all as she has an interview tomorrow but most).
Sorry if posted already but… https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29897305/sources-big-ten-announce-october-return
Hope we don’t see spikes and they have a plan for the students.
One of my D’s classes moved from full remote to hybrid and it was a bit of mess. The students in the classroom couldn’t interact with those still remote, the remote students couldn’t hear anything due to the distance from the mic and the professor’s mask, and the professor found it wholly unsuitable. So, the in-class students will now come to class with a laptop and headphones, and the professor will teach via zoom at his desk. It seems like a failed experiment to me- worked out ok for my D who was remote anyway, but seems almost silly for those in-person.
On a good note, it seems that with all the initial student tests back there were zero positives. They went to a second level of operations anyway because some people weren’t following the rules. Good that they’ll tighten the reigns even without active cases, bad that they didn’t follow through with any penalties at all for the individuals who broke the rules- despite multiple warnings ahead of the semester of stiff consequences. It’s like when a parent has no follow through- kids will just keep doing what they want.
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I hope schools like Pitt and D’s school Duke ‘talk’ offline over the semester to compare their strategies and insights and share what they’ve learned with the public. These are both respected institutions with experts guiding their practices that are utilizing very different methods to monitor covid. Pitt has done a total of 2,724 surveillance tests since Aug. 12…it has what, about 20K undergrads and another 15K grads? There was no pre-entry covid testing required. And I can picture those 3 huge freshman towers for housing (how do you socially distanced in those elevators and not come in contact). I think most upper class live off campus. Compare this to say D’s school (normally 6K undergrads in total but some % took a gap or are taking classes from home…pre-entry test required for everyone and she’s getting tested 1-2 x/week, dorms de-densified to singles, school has run over 29K tests in the same time frame). I am one who believes statistical sampling should be a consideration…but these two schools are so different in their approach…I wish a big school like Pitt could test everyone for antibodies at the end of the semester as a way to evaluate whether or not the very limited sampling was effective in identifying covid. So many students have no symptoms at all…and then there are students who might have symptoms but if they have such a small chance of being tested randomly, why would they even bother reporting their symptoms and instead wait it out to see if the ‘cold’ goes away? I mean, how would you even know if there was an outbreak…I am curious if Pitt has a daily app the students need to use to confirm they are asymptomatic, for example. I am thrilled to read about another large institution doing so well.
Think we can all relate to this The Atlantic: Even the Coronavirus Can’t Kill the SAT and the ACT.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/even-coronavirus-cant-kill-sat-and-act/616360/?utm_source=feed
I’ll probably get jumped on for this, but, again my east coast sensibilities are flummoxed by the triple and quadruple digit numbers that get reported out by some of these larger universities and treated as nothing special. Now, we have Big Ten football returning as though the situations at all of these places are under control. That’s not the vibe I’m getting at all.
@circuitrider. It’s a very fine tightrope to walk. If numbers spike severely, I can see some schools just calling it quits on football but we will see. It’s chancy to question. As stated I just hope there is a plan for the students to some degree. Maybe side spaces they can go to to be spread out, outside and watch the game on a large screen with limited amount of masks people? Only students no people from the community…?? Otherwise kids will congregate somewhere. This could be disastrous. I truly hope it works.
Things not looking so good at CU Boulder:
There are still benefits to have physical presence. By trying, the school/professor/students can see what works and doesn’t and make improvements. Glad they have an option anyway and still continue with class!
My D has a freshman friend at CU and she said that no one wears a mask, there’s lots of partying and she got this the virus this past week (only symptoms are loss of smell and taste). Doesn’t seem like CU has a successful plan in place at all…
I’m not sure the benefits, personally- they’re getting up and going to a classroom to do class exactly as they would if they did it remotely. That said, if it works for them I’m glad. My daughter said that had she be on campus she would’ve just switched to remote. No point in taking the risk of being in a classroom for three hours at a pop for that (in her opinion).
@circuitrider from out west in Arizona, I think it’s difference of experience. We had that massive spike in cases over the summer that had us looking worse than NY, but with a fraction of the deaths. I think, rightly or wrongly, some communities view the risk as lass than those who experienced the worst of things back East.
I don’t know what to think sometimes. My son’s college in Texas (division 1 but not one of the big two there) is playing football, with fans limited to 25% I think (season ticket holders and some students only) and socially distanced. My son hates football and doesn’t go, and that’s fine with me. There hasn’t been any spike of cases reported there, or in the surrounding city or county yet. They’ve only played one game so far. Numbers still declining. People do generally socially distance and wear masks in the area where the school is located. This doesn’t seem to be the case everywhere there’s a big college though. ASU and UAZ are trying to control COVID numbers in their student populations even without football and even with most classes remote.
True, will be interesting to see how many still decide to come to class rather than just work remotely.
And assuming the institution can afford to do so, it should use this as learning opportunity to figure out the IT logistics of microphone etc.
I know we’re talking mostly about undergraduate experiences here, but note that the pandemic is causing repercussions in graduate student admissions. The Penn School of Arts & Sciences announced yesterday that they will pause admissions for school funded PhD programs for the entire SAS for a year due to the financial impact of the pandemic. https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/09/graduate-student-programs-canceled-upenn.