@kjs1992 and @3sonsmom - Thank you for responding about travel abroad question. Please keep us posted. I assume they will be canceled but maybe your respective S’s will be pleasantly surprised. (Okay, I"m trying to be optimistic…but it WOULD be so nice for them both.)
I feel for all these kids who had SO looked forward to these experiences!!! (And for the professors, etc. who have such expertise to share as they mentor these kids in these new countries, etc.)
A 19-year-old App State student has died.
https://www.wxii12.com/article/davidson-north-carolina-teen-basketball-coronavirus-death/34208059#
Looks like he caught it in Boone, came home, was cleared to return, and then came home again, never to return.
D has had classes cancelled as well. One today, in fact. Power outage., supposedly The Zoom class that ended 15 minutes prior to the cancelled one hapoened as scheduled though. If D weren’t a senior applying to grad school and needing professors’ goodwill for rec letters. I’d be calling the provost to complain about quite a few things regarding the education this semester.
Will the team be able to play with one third of the players quarantined?
Perhaps the cases which prompted the unscheduled week off last week will ‘age off’ the quarantine and be able to play by this coming weekend?
Notre Dame’s next game is scheduled for 10/10.
Brian Kelly expects to have 90% of players able to practice on Saturday, 10/3.
Had Notre Dame been in the Big10, the players with the virus would have been out 21 days. Much more problematic in terms of playing games.
Terrible!
@saillakeerie – That story is fascinating and vaguely terrifying, if the coach’s assertion is true that one meal eaten indoors together resulted in so much spread. (I have no reason to doubt the coach, but am now wondering about all of the non-football players dining near each other in restaurants.) Or perhaps the player who vomited contributed to the spread but the coach doesn’t want to point a finger at one player?
Well, having roommates will only lead to more drama. Instead of “my roommate got drunk and threw up in the garbage can and didn’t clean it” (which happened to my d her freshman year), now it will be, “My roommate keeps bringing people back to the room and I’m afraid I’ll get busted for breaking the rules too.”
There are a number of small, private lac’s that are quietly doing full-student in-person learning and they have settled into a routine. They have quarantine quarters, mask requirements and do testing but have not shut down school nor plan to since there is little oversight from the state or county. Nor are there any major outbreaks (but still covid-positive students). I know of a number of these (friend’s kids, etc) and it is such a contrast to hear what they are doing compared to the online-only and restricted schools I read about here. There are some students who are having a not-so-bad residential college experience this semester but you won’t hear about them because their schools are not top 50.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr have announced a plan for spring that includes being on campus February through April. First two weeks on campus with remote learning and last week (finals) remote from home. No spring break. They plan to stagger the return to campus prior to school starting. My daughter plans to return to school for the first time since last March. Though people are 100% breaking the rules, and people are not turning them in (both despite the honor code), the campus has only had two cases and she’s ready to be back. Biggest issue will be me driving her there. When we left the east coast in August we slept in my car on the way to MN. That’s not gonna work in January heading back to PA.
I agree. My son is an introvert. Although he lives in a single room in a two bedroom 3 person occupancy apt, he said he rarely goes out other than going to classes and to get his meals. His housemates are the same as well although he complains about them being too messy. LOL. I am surprised really that RIT is doing better based on what I see in the dashboard. In hindsight, I guess majority of the students are the nerdy and techie types so less partying involved.
@Jagrem that is definitely a thing. I know kids who have roommates who are out partying or bringing kids into their rooms (not at Bowdoin but other schools!) and have brought Covid upon their roommates. Lots of upset kids who wanted to follow rules and their roommates did not.
This is just so sad.
I agree with this and it describes my kid’s college situation, except that the college is in close contact with the county health department. “Not-so-bad residential college experience” is a good description. I’ve reported about it on this thread but feel the focus here is on top 50, NESCAC, large publics.
One school that I referred to as having little state or county oversight does report to their county but the school does their own version of contact tracing and testing, unlike a lot of public schools that seem to be under county pressure to vigorously test everyone.
So this just came down from on high at my employer:
Operations
“Dining services will be limited to takeout and socially distanced outdoor seating only. There will be no indoor seating.
Clubs, organizations, and intramural/recreational activities will be conducted virtually. Gatherings of any kind greater than five people will be prohibited.
The pool and fitness center will temporarily close.
University athletic team activities will be restricted to supervised individual and small group training only. No formal, University-sponsored athletic practices or competition will be permitted during this period.
The University campus will temporarily close to all visitors, including prospective students and their families.”
About 67% of our undergraduate classes are fully online. I believe that the rest will make a pivot shortly. My employer has no testing regime in place. Only those who ask for a test are getting tested.
I don’t like teaching online. I have students in my synchronous Zoom class who join the meeting but don’t participate or leave; today, when I ended class, I had one student who posted a screen picture that looked realistically like someone slumped at home in one’s bedroom, but obviously the student was not in the Zoom meeting because she didn’t know the meeting had ended. I take attendance when students enter the meeting, but I can’t teach and also monitor who’s in and who’s out. I’m going to have to institute performance minimums (i.e. at least two comments, either in person or in the chat) to encourage attendance and participation in Zoom meetings. I don’t like this high-schooly, lowest-common-denominator stuff, but If I don’t do this, then lazy check-out behavior expands. Very few students will remain engaged on Zoom if I don’t force it. I really hate this.
Are they giving reasons for the cancellations, @sdl0625? Generally, if I have cancelled class in the past, I told the students the basic reason why (ditto for professors I’ve had in the past). So far this semester, I have not cancelled class, and I continue to hope that I won’t need to.
Were you suspicious as to the reason given since the earlier class happened as scheduled? Were both classes being given from the same place? Because I’m doing my Zoom classes from my loft, so whatever power situation affects me would likely not be affecting anyone else.
From the email today to my daughter class was cancelled due to external circumstances so that they would not be able to be “in class” during scheduled time. The lecture is being moved to Thursday.
WEll what is to prevent students from doing the same. I would think if it was medical related, a comment would not be made that Thursday would be class as usual. I know professors have private lives, but if they were teaching in person before covid would this have happened? Since its from home, childcare I would think is not part of the equation.
Will see if this is a one time thing or not. Another professor had technical difficulties an cancelled class.
My son has had a few cancelled as well, but I cant really gauge how many. (his are in person one day a week except for one class). He also had an issue with moving office hours from one professor, but I assume that happens non covid as well. He doesnt communicate to me as much actually being at school.
Regarding singles, I believe some schools felt they were important if there were going to be a large portion of courses taken online, so that students would have a private, quiet study space from which to Zoom. I don’t think those decisions revolved 100% around covid spread, but also for class work. As more of those schools get more comfortable opening up other indoor spaces beyond libraries to work in (empty classrooms, etc), having singles may appear less important 2nd semester.
But of course, covid-spread was part of the rationale. What I think will convince schools that they can go back to multiple occupants per room will be seeing what happens at other schools this semester. In Boston, Northeastern, Tufts, and BU all test all students 2x per week, and invited 100% of students back. Harvard and MIT testing 3x per week, but invited just over 25% back for 1st semester. BC not doing mandatory testing of all students, invited 100% back. Berkelee, Simmons, all remote. The only one of those schools that has experienced an outbreak so far is BC—the one without mandatory universal testing. If NEU, Tufts and BU can wrap up the semester as successfully as it has begun, then I think it becomes harder to justify the “singles only” policy at other campuses. They will prove that doubles (paired with frequent testing) work fine.
Regarding life on campus, my freshman is very, very happy to be on campus. Aside from nice suite mates, DC has made lots of friends and is very busy. Masks are annoying to all of us (but worth it), but they are used to it and can make friends anyway. My child’s campus has had zero undergraduate cases for at least two weeks now (although 6 cases among staff/faculty in past 7 days). Each campus is different, but they all have outdoor spaces and plenty of opportunities to do stuff. Kids are coming up with new things that they didn’t used to do (way more ideas like corn hole tournaments, new outdoor spaces are becoming “hot spots” to gather, more eating out in outdoor restaurants as Friday night activity, apple picking, kayaking, etc. They are not necessarily having the exact same experiences as are typical, but they are finding things to do. I’m sure there’s also little bits of rule-breaking that goes unnoticed, too, and on campuses with frequent mandatory testing and no/very few active cases, that probably isn’t quite as risky as it sounds.). The fact that schools are wrapping up in late November means that outdoors with proper clothing will probably be doable for the vast majority of colleges for socializing. Weather has been ridiculously accommodating in the Northeast for outdoor socializing (the flip side of unfortunate drought conditions is no rain forcing kids indoors). I do think there are fewer 3 am or 4 am nights out though, which may not be a bad thing!!! My kiddo will certainly enjoy next year when hopefully things like tailgates and regular parties and full in person classes and In-person activities and theater and sports, etc are back, but this year is far from a bust so far. Just like all of us, the students are making the best of their circumstances.