Since there is no mandatory testing, I don’t think that is surprising. It is troubling to read that at BC students wanted to get tested and couldn’t. While people seem very interested in the US News rankings, as a parent I am more interested in how colleges are handling COVID-19, especially since my high school junior wants to go to school in the south. At my son’s college Northeastern, they have done more than 105k tests of everyone on campus in the past few weeks with a positive rate of .05%. Five of the 9 of the colleges he applied to are not having classes on campus this fall, so I am very pleased with his choice. Some parents are unhappy with the restrictions on students, but I think they are necessary given the current situation. I hope things change by next fall but they may not.
Latest town hall/dashboard from the U of South Carolina. About 2200 positives since August 1. After a big spike 2 weeks into the school year (late August) when there were about 1500 active cases at one time (numbers from both on campus and off campus testing), the numbers have dropped to about 200 active cases now. Positive rate down to single digits from a high in mid-upper teens. The testing numbers seem to be reflective of reality - the wastewater testing numbers are also way down. Still encouraging everyone to get tested often with plenty of access to testing. (My son has been tested twice because of potential exposure, waited about 10 minutes.) Minimal infection of faculty/staff. No apparent community impact based on testing/hospital data. Plenty of quarantine space. Continuing aggressive contact tracing.
In late August it seemed like a gamble to stay open, but it would appear that the testing/contact tracing/quarantine space went as planned. It helped that the U was able to use their own saliva test and lab to get quick turnaround.
I would 100% be looking at that were we in the process this year. How the institution treats its students AND the surrounding community can telegraph a lot about its priorities and/or it’s ineptitudes. Those terrible NYU meals despite an abundance of resources? What does it say about how they think of their students to have a 4.35 billion endowment and to be located in the middle of a food mecca and to basically give them all a pile of packaged snacks?
Some colleges have been rockstars by opening well, changing course quickly if numbers creep up, or not opening at all.
This is the way my DD’s school went and her BF’s. Spike at 2 weeks in, then a dramatic dropoff. BF’s school down to 0 active, DD’s at 13. Maybe now that everyone is settled in it will remain at a slow trickle.
I am not sure how representative the COVID experience is of a college’s overall administration. Clearly, NYU hired the wrong vendor for food delivery to isolated students. That was a mistake, but it does not mean NYU intended to starve its students nor that it mishandled other parts of college administration.
it seems like from what I have been reading that most of the case spikes were in the greek housing. So one has to think that once it has gone through a house, that there is some sort of “herd immunity” reached. I know in the first week or so it went through an entire dorm floor at a big State U. Yes, we dont know if you can get it again, and how soon, but at least in the short term, many of these kids are now “immune”. I think the schools that sent everyone home in a panic, maybe should have waited it out like others. I am keeping an eye on the larger schools to see if it “settles down”
Not sure if any study will be completed on this. Data is there but not sure anyone will put it together and analyze it. If you have a colllege with X% of students/staff who are complying with mask/social distancing/limiting contacts and Y% of kids who are not, will many in the Y% get the virus and thus have some type of immunity for some limited of time? X% will continue to distance/mask. Once that happens, will the risk to the rest of the campus community be reduced? R0 at that point will be reduced.
Are we seeing that already on certain campuses? Is a spike in cases and then a reduction necessarily a situation where the campus is taking it any more seriously with testing/contact tracing?
Like a lot of things in life, not necessarily the case that its a simple answer.
I can easily imagine how the priorities have shifted some for those looking at colleges this coming year.
Take your pick:
- Academics
- Covid Policy
- Sports
- Social Scene
- Etc.
Covid policy is (hopefully) only important because it shows strong leadership, a belief in science, and organizational ability to pull off such a big initiative to keep students and faculty safe. I hope it’s not important because the plan will still be in place for fall 2021. That being said, I think Covid policy says a ton about a college.
The hardest schools to judge are the large publics. They were going to have a difficult path during Covid no matter what. But some did have way better plans than others, treated their students better and got them tested often and had medical care available for them and some just did not. Even some who had to go to a lockdown like UIUC, have very well thought out plans and really should get some kudos compared to Alabama or Auburn where kids couldn’t get a test even if they wanted one, kids weren’t even quarantining themselves because no one was making them go to isolation, etc.
The CDC director yesterday stated he hoped the majority of Americans would have access to a vaccine that is 70% effective by Sept 30, 2021. Given that, I expect COVID policies will remain in place at colleges through Fall 2021 semester.
I wonder if students and teachers would be in a wave of available vaccines earlier than Sept 30. The info I’ve seen puts them towards to top of who gets the vaccine. And maybe some schools can get their hands on it just a little earlier. I’m sure that colleges are going to do everything in their power to get back to normal asap.
Our school continues to have low numbers, but as far as I know there is no surveillance testing or routine testing happening yet, despite statements from on uber-high.
That said, I think it’s far too early to declare victory even at schools which are at least doing well right now. Things look more cautiously optimistic than many expected, perhaps, but the semester has just gotten started.
My D has her first round of exams starting next week. Tomorrow is the end of week 4 of classes. They are 1/3 of the way through their planned on campus semester (they come home at Thanksgiving and then everything shifts to online for dead week and finals). I’m excited for her that they made it this far into the semester without any huge issues. Most students have been on campus for 5 weeks. I’m getting more cautiously optimistic that they’ll make it through the semester.
My kid’s school just emailed the schedule for Spring semester. The old (pre-pandemic) schedule was supposed to start on 1/4. The email said “For the spring semester, the calendar will be modified in order to maximize our chances of maintaining in-person operations.” Now classes start on 1/12 and finals end 4/30, with no spring break but a long weekend for Easter.
So far things have been going reasonably well, with almost all students present on campus (and almost all live in doubles) and the majority of classes F2F. The biggest worry seems to be the fact that there is an outbreak at a large public university 20 miles away and where, in the past, Hope students have gone to party.
Our neighbor’s daughter is at University of South Carolina and would disagree strongly that testing is available. Roommate tested positive right before labor day and they completely shut down all testing for 4ish days and only had about 200 tests available after that. She tried to get tested for 10 days before giving up. They’re testing numbers are way, way down. With a positivity rate still at 7.4% they’re missing cases.
I wonder if professors who opted out of face to face teaching will be inclined to go back to the classroom for spring semester at some of the smaller schools that are reporting very few to zero cases. They have to be encouraged that the plans are working
I agree. It is early, though, and we need to see how those small schools in colder climates do once kids can’t be outside as much. The weather will start to change and it will get darker earlier so the time that the students are able to be outside and be with friends socially distanced will be cut short. Either they will socialize less or accept that they will be inside more and maybe with fewer in-person social encounters. This is definitely the year to invest in that amazing winter coat if you’re a student at a NE schools and haven’t bought one yet!
HomerDog – thought it would be interesting to update with you. We discussed back at end June. Have one kid at Bowdoin, one kid at Bates. For Bowdoin we decided to take semester off, he is taking classes at local university here (not for credit so far) and working. Driving my wife and I little insane at times but mostly o.k. Bates Kid went back at end Aug. Tested upon arrival and had to remain in room after arrival until 1st test came back (2 days with food delivered etc…). then testing 2 a week (maybe more) since then. 2 positives so far - both at beginning and already 2 week quarantined down. Bates made students sign an agreement before arriving - and am told they have sent several students home already for violating the rules. Bates also had to house students in the Hampton Inn downtown Lewiston for the semester as overflow . bates kid is on campus dorm- 4 rooms sharing a common area. Bates kid states college life is “dull” but still happy to be there. doing 2 classes til Oct, 2 classes til turkey, finish 2 weeks at home after turkey day. not back til middle Jan. IF This Holds Up, then I would hope this creates a positive impression to Bowdoin that they can have everyone back for 2nd semester (maybe start in february and finish in june?). I am sure they could find local hotels for overflow- offer a shuttle service. there are plenty of susceptible locals in Lewiston/Auburn and Brunswick and again so far, Bates plan seems to be working.
Latest town hall/dashboard from the U of South Carolina. About 2200 positives since August 1. After a big spike 2 weeks into the school year (late August) when there were about 1500 active cases at one time (numbers from both on campus and off campus testing), the numbers have dropped to about 200 active cases now. Positive rate down to single digits from a high in mid-upper teens. The testing numbers seem to be reflective of reality - the wastewater testing numbers are also way down. Still encouraging everyone to get tested often with plenty of access to testing. (My son has been tested twice because of potential exposure, waited about 10 minutes.) Minimal infection of faculty/staff. No apparent community impact based on testing/hospital data. Plenty of quarantine space. Continuing aggressive contact tracing.
In late August it seemed like a gamble to stay open, but it would appear that the testing/contact tracing/quarantine space went as planned. It helped that the U was able to use their own saliva test and lab to get quick turnaround.
Today at 7:12 am
Hmm… not sure about you, but I live in Columbia- the state paper had a interesting political cartoon about labor day at USC… that said once the sororities come out of quarantine maybe numbers will get back… I remain skeptical how to test and manage such a large undergraduate and graduate student body
I don’t think Bowdoin will have all kids back unless they decide they don’t need singles. They already looked at hotels and the closest one they would use is a ten-fifteen min bus ride away and, in their analysis which I think is true, no one would want to go live at the Fairfield Inn so far away. Classes will be remote. When would they even get on a bus to go to campus? Why if there are no in person classes? How do they get fed with that awesome Bowdoin food three times a day if they are far away at a hotel?
But that info is good intel. I didn’t know that Bates had kids living off campus. I thought they were all housed as usual. So Bowdoin parents don’t have a leg to stand on if they use Bates as an example of “all students back on campus”.
I really hope they can do as originally sold to all of us and get sophs, juniors and seniors back. It’s not clear right now what the singles look like there for the freshmen - if the quads with two bedrooms and one common room is holding one student or two students. If they only have one student per quad then they could change that up for spring and put two in there. They would each have their own bedroom but have to just share the common room where their desks and closets are.
New info yesterday makes it sound like we will know who will be on campus by thanksgiving. They want to wait and see how it all goes since it’s pretty early still with NESCACs only being a few weeks into this.