@homerdog Yes Duke is having in person classes. My daughter has 2- I understand it varies a lot. Her friend who’s a senior has all in person even though upperclassman aren’t residing on campus this year. She, like apparently 90% of enrolled students, is in Durham. My daughter is on campus - fall prioritized freshman and sophomores - everyone in singles and spring prioritizes upperclassmen. A few of her freshman friends with mostly big lectures don’t have any in person. Most seem to have 1 or 2.
Kids are eating in the dining halls. The fitness center opened just a few weeks ago as the state of North Carolina moved to whatever level necessary to open gyms. Libraries are open, but you need to make a reservation for study rooms/cubes.
She’s having a great time. The biggest difference is masks - but she’ll tell you after a few weeks it’s really not a big deal, and now that the weather is cooler even less so. Groups of 10, common rooms open, and only 3 in a dorm room. She’s made a ton of friends, formed study groups, watched a lot of movies and with the exception of the big parties, is having a pretty normal college experience.
I hope schools take note of Duke’s plan in their planning for next semester and Fall 2021 because they seem to be having a lot of success with less restrictions than many other schools.
The limit is two if it includes anyone age 18-22. People outside this age range are not restricted from gathering by this health order, although other health orders regarding gathering may apply.
Duke only has two grades on campus so kids are in singles I think? So their plan, if it’s going to be repeated somewhere else, only allows for half of the kids to be on campus. It was not a popular decision when it was made. Are all grades staying out for spring there? Or are freshmen kicked out and juniors and seniors replacing them?
Purdue suspends another 14 students, 13 of which are student athletes. Best line of the article: "The fact that this episode involved student-athletes can make no difference. At Purdue, we have one set of rules for everyone.”
It’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, which could have non Orthodox folks living there and would apply to everyone in the neighborhood- not specific age groups. This is different than what Boulder.
In addition to signal testing swathes of students, staff and faculty each week, Denison is now testing the entire student body, class by class. So far, they have completed the freshman and senior classes, with no positive results. Based on this result, students in those two classes now have a little more freedom to mingle in their dorm rooms, with up to two or three guests allowed (from the pool that tested negative). The sophomores and juniors are being tested this week. Everybody is also receiving a mandatory flu shot this week. Classes remain a mix of in-person and remote. S19’s classes happen to be all-remote but he seems to be very satisfied and is having a lot of one-to-one interaction with his professors as well. I’m afraid he’s going to resist when classes go back to face-to-face and he actually has to walk to class on winter mornings! The athletic center is open and the teams are having some intrasquad competitions. The dining halls are also open, although it seems a lot of people are taking advantage of the nice weather to dine outdoors. The school has been making good use of some large tents that can serve as classrooms, party and meeting spaces, picnic areas, etc. The school continues to try and keep things interesting, and there seem to be a lot of innovative things going on - last week the theater department presented a physically - distanced outdoor performance using locations around the campus, for example. This semester will continue until November 20 on campus and then finals will be remote, so it is possible things may become more challenging as the weather gets colder, but so far so good. The school did crack down hard early in the semester and sent some kids home who were not following the rules, but it seems that compliance is generally good at this point. We receive updates from the president twice a week, and this morning’s message confirmed the school is planning to be open for the spring semester.
That may be one of the keys too… send home/restrict access for those who find the rules too hard to follow or who think the rules don’t apply to them. It does feel very negative, but everyone has/had a choice. Especially after a warning.
Hi all, does anyone know what the situation is looking like at Brandeis (and in Boston in general)? My daughter finally got her student Visa and is due to start mid-January as a freshman- fingers crossed. From the Brandeis dashboard it seems that they test students twice a week, and have only been averaging about 1 case per week, so it looks okay. But we don’t really know anything else, aside from the fact that most students should be in singles and some dining is happening in person. Does anyone know/has heard anything more? Thanks!
Quick question about the mandatory flu shots that some schools (Denison mentioned above) are requiring. My child got a flu shot at a Target right before school. If her school decides to have mandatory shots, I can’t imagine she has kept any record of the shot she got…but I’m assuming it would be bad to get two shots within a month of each other? Hopefully they would take her word…if anyone has a thought on this, let me know. Thanks!
^Any Target/CVS would have record of the shot and be able to print it out, I would think. We always get ours at home Target/CVS, but last year we went to CVS at younger S’ school’s city. They had all of our info there.
@AlfaBeta72 I live in MA. I don’t know anything particularly about Brandeis, except that they haven’t been in the news for covid problems which is a good thing. Several other schools have been.
MA in general is heading in the wrong direction. It’s not a big spike but the trend in the last few weeks hasn’t been good. On the news last night they were blaming colleges, but hospitalizations are also up so I don’t think that’s the whole story. Despite this, restaurants are moving to the next phase of opening up so life is getting back closer to normal. Kids in my town are going to school in person but that varies by town. I went to Chipotle a couple days ago and there was a group of high school kids standing outside and a line of them inside, all wearing masks, but not socially distancing. It will be interesting to see where it goes in the next couple weeks but I would not hesitate to send my kid to college here, especially to one that appears to have things under control.
We always go to CVS and while we do not pay out of pocket they do bill our insurance. I can go on my insurance provider web site and get an explanation of benefits for any big they have paid. When you get it at CVS or Wallgreens at the pharmacy it is treated as a prescription. They put it into their computers, they must keep records.
Or my scenario with the young mom and baby trying to go the doctor or grocery store. Even if no nexus to CU!