Wesleyan’s student paper continues to pump out interesting articles during Covid-19 restrictions. The first one reveals the full extent of Wesleyan’s enrollment figures. It reports approximately 96% enrollment with 15% of the student body taking classes from home and over 2400 students on campus. About a hundred undergraduates out of nearly 3,000 have presumably taken gap years or some other form of leave: http://wesleyanargus.com/2020/09/18/15-of-enrolled-undergraduate-students-studying-remotely-for-fall-semester/
The second is an opinion piece that takes a realistic look at life on a party-less campus: a lot of people-watching (from a distance), studying, second thoughts about the kids on your hall (maybe they’re worth getting to know after all) and odd road trips (“Anyone for the Stop N’ Shop parking lot?”: http://wesleyanargus.com/2020/09/18/the-death-of-the-weekend/
There are many people that I know who are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving with their elderly parents and/or grandparents. Many of the elderly people I know don’t want to put their life on hold any longer. They want to enjoy the time they have now with their families.
That is really detailed and excellent update for BC. Seems like with the rapid assistance of profesional contact tracers from the MA DPH and a huge increase in asymptomatic testing, that things are on a much better trajectory. Great news. And lots of hard work no doubt to get there…
All eyes are on Providence College now…
Most colleges’ testing plans based on currently-available tests are unlikely to be that effective, since they are too expensive or time consuming to do daily, and results may not come back soon enough to prevent an asymptomatic contagious person from spreading the virus between being tested and knowing the results.
And if they had inexpensive lick-the-strip instant tests, everyone about to go to a family gathering with the elders can test for contagiousness and know the results just before going (and not go if they are positive).
If online classes continue in the spring, I bet there will be more even more students that will defer or take a semester off. From what I have seen/heard, many professors have “given up”. I was told of one that told the students going forward they were no longer meeting and to contact him during office hours if you have any questions ; another who teaches some in person and told hte students that he “doesnt have time to teach” . So not even moving online, but just once again given up. One of my daughters classes is acting. It is not going well at all online. The professor is trying, but so many issues. I know that before GW went all online, 3 of D’s classes were going to be in person. (in larger rooms for social distancing). And based on the mayor of DC’s press conference yesterday, DC likely will not be moving forward until the virus is gone. so likely no hope for the spring.
Sorry for all the doom and gloom. its one thing to have already be doing online classes. Its another thing that these classes are not being “Taught”. or that professors have “given up”. The students are reaching out to advisors and department heads, but what can be done. How many of these professors are tenured.
My son had significant problems in the spring with teacher’s just giving up but it has gone quite a bit better this fall. In fact he said at he doesn’t even really care now if the classes switch to in person or not. It seems that all his profs have figured out the technology and he has been able to “meet” other kids in all his classes. Three of his large lectures are structured so that the prof uploads a prerecorded lecture the day before class which students are supposed to watch in preparation, then the class time is spent discussing the topic that the lecture was on. He says most classes also have group chats where there is quite a bit of discussion outside of class, and from what he described it is both substantive and process (i.e. what is going to be covered on the test tomorrow). He says he’s actually attended more review sessions than last year, because its so easy. You don’t have to actually go anywhere - just get on your computer and open the link.
I’m part of a parent FB group for DC’s university (which is completely virtual for fall). The parents seem to be putting a lot of blame on the students currently living off campus for a resurgence of cases in the area, claiming this will threaten the reopening for everyone else for second semester. This is irrational. The reality is that even if cases in the area are low immediately beforehand, as soon as a critical mass of students arrive, whether on or off campus–be it now, in January or next fall–there will be a resurgence of COVID cases. For schools to claim that keeping cases low in the fall will help them reopen for spring is a falsehood. Nothing will have materially changed between now and January. There won’t be a vaccine widely available to students, and if there isn’t a vaccine, cases will go up. Schools either bring students back knowing that there will be an uptick in cases, or they wait until a vaccine and/or treatment are widely available (likely a year from now). The fact that many students would choose to move closer to campus (even if classes are virtual) rather than sit at home with their parents and without their friends should surprise no one, least of all the universities, many of which told students up until late summer that they would be “open”, resulting in students signing off-campus leases for the year.
@circuitrider - Thanks for the Wesleyan link. I read that student article. It (sadly) helped paint the picture of campus weekend life. And I appreciate the writer’s continued ability to move forward and persist nonetheless.
@sdl0625 - Thank you for your post. I appreciate any info about GW (S21 plans to apply). He loves DC so much but I keep thinking how on Earth will the benefits of living there right now will be as meaningful as we anticipated when he visited there last year? Maybe if a vaccine does happen, and the distribution of it happens and that students all are (required?) to take it, then there is hope that F21 may have some f2f classes.
Regardless of F21, I hope your D continues to be able to foster some friendships and bond. What year is she? Does she plan to stay there for Spring?
@cuppasbux - Do you have a current student at one of the DC schools? If so, what year, and how is s/he feeling about school, etc this fall? Will s/he remain for Spring? (Or stuck in an apt lease?) I feel so incredibly sad for all the student everywhere, but reading your post helped me continue to learn more about what is happening in yet another city/college area. Thank you for sharing it.
@123Mom123 she is at school in CA. She is a freshman living off campus through the end of the fall semester. We are taking a wait-and-see approach for the Spring. She is feeling okay, but obviously wishes she were having a more “typical” first year experience. That said, she is meeting people and connecting with other students. It was important to her to begin the next phase of her life. We are trying to strike a balance between caution and establishing a “new normal” since, as I said, above, I don’t think anything materially changes in terms of college until there’s a vaccine widely available to students (who are in a lower risk category). I don’t think the “wait it out” approach is realistic.
My D is a Senior graduating in Dec. So for her, this is her last semester. She could have lived in DC but decided to live her in GA instead, as rents are cheaper(she is living with friends who are also home for now) and she has use of a car, and felt that getting a PT job would be easier. Her friends had signed leases already so they are all up there and she will visit them. If she was graduating in May she likely would have lived there. But hopefully she will get full time employment somewhere in Jan and wanted to not be tied down to DC. Before Covid she loved GW, had some good internships . GW classes online have not been bad at all compared to my son’s classes at another school, but its not the same .
Colgate is staying at Gate 1 (limited in person activity) which I expected will happen. Currently the school has 3 active cases that resulted to 47 students being quarantined due to being identified as close contact. Two of the positive cases alone identified 36 students as being close contacts from the two students who violated the travel restriction outside of Hamilton. Wendt Inn, the hotel Colgate bought this summer and is being used for quarantine, is currently at 40% occupancy according to the university president. Violations to commitment are increasing towards high alert. I can’t imagine the stress and frustrations from everyone on campus, those looking forward to moving to Gate 2 this week. But it is not happening. I am beginning to wonder if opening for in-campus classes is really worth it considering the same problems caused by students behavior is causing the school from moving forward. Or maybe the school should be more strict with the re-inforcement of the guidelines with a much severe consequence. Give one warning, then a second violation should resort to automatic lost of privilege for in campus learning.
Wesleyan planned for 782 students on Aug 1st and the melt the final month left 672 + 47 deferrals, so their freshman class not including deferrals is down 14%. That seems to be inline with other top privates.
PBS (check your local station) had a nice piece on Colby College tonight (9/22). It starts around 39 minutes into the program.
But, more importantly, you might want to start the tape a little before - around 30 mins into the episode. There’s a pretty good refresher course on covid-19 basics. I found it astounding how much more we know about combatting the virus today than we did at the beginning of this thread.
