I hope not. The thought of going 15 straight weeks next spring with only president’s day off is nearly enough to make me hang it up.
Not all colleges are adapting the same. I’m curious whether some of the CA schools (SCU, LMU) will have students back on campus for spring. For fall, they have no students on campus. For many colleges, only certain segments of students were allowed on campus this fall and they are supposed to switch out, go home for spring, and other students who studied from home were told they will be on campus for spring. Most of those colleges have not confirmed their spring plans so we don’t know if that will happen. Also, for colleges that are mostly online, I wonder if spring will continue that way or if any will consider having some classes in person.
And what about winter and spring sports? Not a lot of news on those yet.
I understand no spring break for this year but I agree. A whole semester without a week break is a long time for students and professors. I think Bowdoin is also considering no week-long break but two four-day weekends as breaks. The thing is that kids there will probably just study during that time anyway since they won’t have anything social to do and won’t be leaving campus. Maybe it’s a break for the faculty but not really the students.
Hmmmm, I think I agree with your first point, but not the 2nd! I cannot even explain it to myself, but I am endlessly fascinated with this thread and would hate to know how many hours I have spent skimming it. But really, what to do with a gigantic residential college system in a pandemic was such a complex, interesting problem involving health, big dollars, livelihoods, future plans, living accomodations, just so many important things, along with some luck and very different student bodies. And so many smart people working on this complex problem, coming up with vastly different approaches. I love hearing about how it all pans out at each school. Sure, some posts emphasize things I’m less interested in, but overall I love the updates and the points-of-view. Plus I feel like it reminds me how Covid is playing out differently across our country, for different populations. I learn a lot from everyone (thank you, contributors!). I guess a lot of it could be construed as pointless, but it’s engaging and I’m addicted!!
With the online and blended courses, I don’t understand why they couldn’t structure vacations like regular jobs do and let the students pick their own days off? Or to be more accurate, let them pick their own lectures and assignment dates to take from a set of options spread throughout a semester.
Interesting! I had not thought of it from the instruction side.
I am viewing this through the lens of my northeast bias, but I thought that most schools eliminated fall break, and will send everyone home at Thanksgiving to complete the term from home. Rice was the first one to announce this model months ago, and many others followed.
Schools that worked so hard to contain infections will not want to introduce traveling students back into the residential population and require another 14 day quarantine, so I expect we will not see spring breaks in the northeast. I admit that the winter term is a really long slog w/o a break, and I feel especially bad for first year students who are confined to campus this fall.
Editing to add that students are not supposed to leave campus this fall, other than for unavoidable reasons. I didn’t drill down to see what would be considered unavoidable, but assume medical care might be one.
Colleges may not be in control of their own schedules/plans. If the virus continues to spread (it’s on an upswing), there will be schools forced to close because they local/state government requires it. I wouldn’t bet on the Spring being better. Even with a vaccine, it will take months to be ready.
I like the colleges that moved up the semester to allow finals completed before the thanksgiving break and pushed back spring start so they students get almost 2 months off before spring. Eliminated spring break and done by the end of April. Gives them a full 3 months+ off for summer.
By the way, I just don’t see spring being much different than fall. Whatever is working in the fall most colleges will continue that for the spring. I just think most colleges are too conservative during CV-19 to make any big changes mid-year.
By the way. Was talking with friend last night who’s D freshman is at Michigan and the roommate was exposed to CV at a Rosh Hashana gathering. So everyone is isolated in a separate building in singles. But what was very interesting is that about 500 parents created a CV fund and service to help the quarantined. For example, the daughter wanted to make a pasta dish so there is an app where within two hours a parent comes and drops off groceries and even a pot/pan to boil pasta. And get this, it’s all free to the students. Amazing how the community is stepping up in these unprecedented times.
Dont count on any of the DC schools opening up in the Spring. Or limiting their opening. (AU GT GW). The mayor of DC does not want the colleges there and her guidelines make it near impossible. Public schools will not be allowed to open until they hit a phase 3, which has hard to reach metrics. So in so cases, it is the local jurisdictions that are dictating opening.
on the Boulder thing what is preventing an 18 year old going out to eat with a family member/friend down the road in lets say Broomfield.
I think no one is really expecting college to be any different for spring. Wonder if anyone on campuses now will bag it and defer for spring. They now know what Covid college is like. I bet a lot aren’t loving it or don’t think it’s worth the money. Students who aren’t happy with their current experience could start looking for other options now and could find something else to do starting Jan.
The other question is will the colleges allow deferral for spring when they’ve lost tuition funds and spent millions to get and stay Covid ready.
Interesting. My kids know a dozen kids that go these colleges and every single one of them still went down to DC to live off campus while doing online school and party together in apartments. So the students are still there, just not in the dorms. Especially in the fall- there are a HUGE amount of programs that bring kids in from others colleges for the DC Washington Experience Program, especially in an election year. Those were also not cancelled.
@sdl0625 but Catholic University in DC is open right now with residential for students. So wouldn’t they be open in the Spring too?
Well, it is frustrating from a NE POV. Comparing the infection rates across regions and across institutional types does seem like comparing apples vs. oranges vs. bananas.
All of my D’s friends who go to school in DC went back to their off campus apartments.
D actually doesn’t have anyone in her friend cohort from OH who stayed home.
And despite lots of restrictions on campus, every single one is happy to be at school and will be back in the spring (unless they are going back to their co-ops).
Definitely seems like there are huge regional differences.
they only allowed Freshman on campus.
"Catholic University will limit the number of students who can reside on campus and take classes in person in Fall 2020. Priority will be given to freshmen (and transfers with fewer than 30 college credits). They will move into the residence halls as planned. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors will not be able to live on campus this fall, and will take all of their classes online. Here you will find more information about student life and academics for the fall semester.
Looks like Northern Arizona University is scrambling to deal with greater than expected need for quarantine housing.
Count me in as someone who thinks spring won’t look a whole lot different for fall.
That said, I am hoping that everyone can learn from all the different methods/experiments that are going on this fall in the schools that have opened, and we can all find out what works, if anything! I know that my son’s school, Elon, states that through contract tracing they have determined that spread is through social activities and not through classes, so while they are continuing to have to make more social/activity/gathering/dorm limits, they are not changing the mode of instruction, which is approximately 50% online and 50% in class. Of course the biggest question is is there anything schools can do to stop the social spread? I think some smaller schools are doing it successfully. It’s all a big experiment in some ways and I hope that it provides some meaningful data for schools to reevaluate and plan for spring.
It’s hard to be hopeful for the CA schools, with some closing for spring already. Weren’t some CA schools also the first to make closed announcements over the summer? CA seems to be on a county level system, which is good (although not good for my D in LA/LMU), and it sounds like the governor will continue his very cautious and controlled approach and says it will be more cautious than in spring: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-08/california-counties-loosen-covid19-rules-after-labor-day
It sounds like they are just tiptoeing into getting some K-12 kids back in school, overall, in a very phased manner.
Oh…I’ll add this for “good community news:” The Elon student government is now providing funding for a subscription service for grocery delivery to help out kids who don’t have a car (Elon has a good number of on campus apartments) so they can minimize their exposure and/or help with quarantine situations.
@sdl0625 you said none of the DC schools would open in the spring because the Mayor didn’t want them open. So how did Catholic University get the residential experience for freshmen in the fall term but GW, AU and Georgetown didn’t? I was just trying to figure out how one college was allowed to bring freshmen to DC and I am assuming they will be able to in the spring too while the rest of the them could not especially with DC having such a low positivity rate compared to other areas of the country. Please note I am not saying to open up for residential experiences but more just wondering how one school was still able to open while the rest have no residential experience.