Policy at Purdue is if you are sick…of any kind…you don’t go to classes and you go get tested. They told students and staff to be overly cautious and isolate. Colds and flu are contagious too.
@msdynamite85 the blame for failure to survey at risk elders from day 1 in MA lies squarely with the Corner office in Mass not with the Broad Institute. Moreover the private Broad Institute came to the rescue of vulnerable elders.
https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/broad-institute-partners-city-cambridge-pilot-covid-19-surveillance-nursing-facilities
Additionally the Broad Institute contracted to provide rapid PCR testing for the homeless in shelters during the surge in April in Mass and has also contracted to be deployed by the state DPH to red zone hot spot cities like Chelsea, Holyoke, Brockton, Lawrence, Worcester, Springfield and any other community that is identified to be at highest risk for covid. These communities contain high percentage of families and individuals living in poverty, working in essential services and taking public transportation. Many are predominantly non english speaking communities.
and here
https://www.broadinstitute.org/node/631921
With all due respect your ire is ill placed.
The SUNY Oneonta situation was a disaster, stemming from very poor planning. The school did not test returning students at all! No test required to return to campus! They had 400 cases by Sept 3rd, and it just continued to spiral out of control from there. The students were warned to stop having large off campus parties and they did not.
“ Dr. Barbara Jean Morris stepped down at SUNY Oneonta, where the 712 student Covid-19 cases comprise more than half the total number of reported cases from campus testing across the entire SUNY system.”
So on Sept 3rd they made the decision to close the campus and send everyone home.
You would think after the New York State nursing home fiasco, where as someone mentioned earlier, the sick COVID patients were sent back into nursing homes, that New York State would have made sure to have a good set of SUNY opening plans and protocols for every school in the SUNY system …
Many schools did not require testing to return to campus. My son was not required to be tested by his school. His school did not have a huge outbreak however, and things are going so well they are easing restrictions. There has to be much more going on at SUNY Oneonta beyond not requiring testing to return to campus.
Yes, the large off campus parties also contributed.
“Obviously this came on fast and hard,” she [SUNY Oneonta President Barbara Jean Morris]. said. “We had a super-spreader event last weekend with three athletic teams who invited first-year students to a party, then those students came back to campus.”
This resulted in five students and three campus organizations being suspended for holding parties, violating campus policy. I believe other parties were held after this event, even among the quarantined students. So poor student behavior among a subset of students contributed.
“ Later that week, a photo appeared on social media of a dozen infected students partying in an isolation dorm and posing for a selfie, drawing the ire of students, parents and officials.”
SUNY Oneonta has about 6000 students. As their infection rate went into the 700s, they exceeded the >100 cases and/or the >5% rule, and they had to close the campus.
“ Those incidents seemed to highlight how SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York had seriously mishandled the pandemic, resulting in the worst outbreak of any college in New York state, with more than 670 cases, totaling about 10% of the campus student population.
In terms of the percentage of students infected, it is one of the most notable outbreaks on a campus anywhere in the country.”
“ But the disarray at SUNY Oneonta has left university officials scrambling to explain why they did not put in place a strict monitoring system to prevent the virus from gaining a foothold. The oversight of the broader State University of New York system has also been called into question.”
To close the campus, only students testing negative were allowed to leave initially. Positive students had to remain on campus until they were also negative before being allowed to return home.
The president of St. Augustine U in NC died of COVID
Seems like lots of campuses are playing the COVID-19 outbreak lottery here, and SUNY Oneonta got a big jackpot. SUNY Oneonta got unlucky in that students had big parties, and the parties became superspreader events.
According to this link, he contracted it off campus:
https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/coronavirus-kills-transformative-st-aug-s-president/19339232/
Article lists 20 universities with the highest cumulative count of reported COVID-19 cases:
http://www.thetigercu.com/news/clemson-university-has-the-most-cumulative-positive-covid-19-cases-out-of-any-university-in/article_a5a79ebc-0e98-11eb-bf66-9f3247c39ddb.html
18 of the 20 are large state flagships, with 1 large non-flagship and 1 large private. However, the sizes vary significantly, so the ranking based on percentage infected would be different. But it looks like some may have a higher rate of cases relative to student population than SUNY Oneonta.
And if I’m correct, it looks like 8 of the 20 are SEC schools. SMH. (Yes, our local university is one of them.)
SUNY Oneonta’s campus was closed down on Sept 3rd (and some of what I quoted above was published closer to that date), so their cumulative numbers would have stopped growing, after those exposed finished contracting the virus from that spread event at that time.
They opened around Aug 24th, and closed around Sept 3rd with over 700 cases resulting - that is a high number for their size, and only having been open for 10 days. Short but fierce. Schools that are still open will continue to increase their cumulative numbers, surpassing Oneonta as the year goes on, as shown by your graph.
By athletic conference:
SEC (7): Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn
Big “Ten” (6): Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Penn State, UIUC, Iowa
Pac-12 (3): Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado
ACC (1): Clemson
Mountain West (1): BYU
Mid-American (1): Miami (OH)
On closer inspection, it looks like 19 (not 20) universities are shown on the “top 20” graph in that article.
Looks like our flagship’s abandoned “Top 20 by 2020” plan did succeed on a different front. :-\
@homerdog
I’m late to this discussion but are you factoring in a college’s COVID response when making college lists for your D21? I worry that with vaccine delays, next fall will be somewhat similar to this fall and I’m trying to plan for that. Among my D21’s top ED choices (she’s still deciding), there are big differences in how they’ve responded. I ideally want her to be able to go off to college and not be stuck at home doing online courses. Keeping in mind these are the EDI and possible EDII contenders and all could be considered reaches, here are the differences:
- AMHERST COLLEGE —Freshmen/Sophomores have priority to live on campus in fall. They can request spring as well but there is a cap and freshmen won’t have priority. Assuming fall only on campus amounts to 3 months total. —Students are not allowed to leave campus. —Students are COVID tested twice weekly. —Campus dining is grab & go only. —Single rooms only in dorms. —Campus job and summer earnings are automatically waived and grant of roughly $4,500 is added to financial aid packages
- WILLIAMS COLLEGE —All students are invited back to campus for both semesters. Amounts to 7 months on campus. —Students are allowed to leave campus but must stay within a designated geographic area. —Students are COVID tested twice weekly. —5 dining rooms are open; 2 for in-person dining (distanced); and 3 for grab & go only. —Single and double rooms in dorms. —Campus job and summer earnings are automatically waived and grant of roughly $4,500 is added to financial aid packages. —Tuition is reduced by 15%; EFC is reduced by 15%.
- WELLESLEY COLLEGE —Freshmen/Sophomores invited to campus in fall and Juniors/Seniors in spring. This amounts to 3.5 months total. —Students are allowed to leave campus but must stay within a designated geographic area. —Students are COVID tested once a week. —Campus dining is a mix of in-person and grab & go. —Single rooms only in dorms. —Summer earnings is replaced with a $1,950 grant. Campus job is still required.
- MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE —All students are invited back to campus for both semesters. Amounts to 6 months on campus. —Students are allowed to leave campus but must stay within a designated geographic area. —Students are COVID tested upon arrival and may occasionally be tested randomly. —3 dining rooms are open but all have the same menu. Students may only go to the dining room they’re assigned. Mix of in-person and grab & go. —Single and double rooms in dorms. —No grants automatically offered for summer earnings and campus job.
Interestingly, each school’s COVID cases range between 2 and 4 total positive cases.
Some of the schools on D21’s list that are online only this fall have dropped to the bottom of the list. I’m just curious how much the COVID response is factoring into the decisions other families are making.
I bet it depends on the state. NY not down with big Covid numbers. Some other state governments don’t really seem to care.
First, are you sure that Midd isn’t testing everyone at least weekly? I think that they are.
And, yes, Covid will be a factor. That’s one reason why she’s not using ED. We want to see as much of the 2020-2021 school year as we can before she has to decide. D also has a list of schools with a range of Covid responses - everything from LMU where there are no kids on campus, to BC where everyone is back and most have some in-person classes. Covid won’t be the top reason why she chooses or does not choose a school but it will be factored in. She’s also open to taking a gap year if all classes are online. That’s a deal breaker. She needs to be on campus with classes in person or she’s not going.
@GoldPenn Looking over your compilation I think Williams is a natural first choice. Althought I have family emeritus ties to Amherst College and sibling and a niece alum, I also have sibling ties to Williams as alumini, and know their experiences to be amazing. The data above supports what may be a great choice for you even during these times. Best wishes.
This is the right approach but its very challenging in practice. Lots of incentives not to admit you are sick. Very much a cultural thing. Some people will go through a majority of the winter with cold symptoms/a cold. Even with a negative Covid test, you may later be exposed to Covid but think your cold symptoms are just continuing. Lying to doctors is incredibly common. And I think that likely means asymptomatic spread is overstated.
Looking at that linked chart, it seems Penn State has had about 2700 cases. Pitt, which is also a large public university in the same state has had only 280 since Aug 1. It seems that Pitt has done a much better job of controlling it. It would be interesting to dive into and figure out why.
@homerdog wrote:
Homer, I have to admire your D21 for not being wedded to the whole college-right-out-of-high-school lockstep. But, I have a feeling that for most families that would be as a necessity (like where the college goes online after they’ve already withdrawn all their other applications), not as a Plan A. What college is worth putting your life on hold for a year before it offers the experience you want? Maybe, I’m misunderstanding you?
Well we went through this exercise with S19 and he chose to defer rather than take remote classes. If he had been invited back to campus, he at least would have already had friends. Freshmen going back to some campuses are feeling pretty lonely. It’s not a matter of some college being “worth” taking a year off. She wouldn’t be the only one ever making that choice. @socaldad2002’s D has to make that decision right before drop off at Duke when Duke shifted its plan. And lots of other freshmen (40 at Bowdoin alone) decided on gap years only after knowing the fall plan. It’s not some bold move. She just doesn’t want to start out college online and with a stunted social life.
I went through this process trying to explain to everyone here about S as well. When we send the kids to college we are buying a very specific experience. Why wouldn’t D give it another year for Covid to get sorted out if fall 2021 doesn’t look better on campus than spring 2021?