I didn’t see the details, but I saw that Bucknell students are “sheltering in place” since Saturday due to a spike in cases.
The big surge is going to show up in about 3 weeks. Cases are already rising and Halloween parties this weekend will plant the seeds for a big increase. Schools will focus on getting to Thanksgiving break.
NY has a lot of free and accessible testing sites for all residents. I think there is also frequent mandated testing for nursing homes. My opinion (and I don’t want to be political about this) our upstate NY area has quite a few anti-maskers although most of the people I see outside who are out and about with their daily activities are wearing masks. One thing I noticed though after picking up my son from school, some of the kids are removing their mask while waiting to go on the bus and not social distancing. Here lies the problem of kids getting infected , is asymptomatic, they bring it home spreading the virus around unknowingly to the family. And the cycle of infection continues until it goes out to the community.
Housing update - Duke offered only Frosh/Sophs housing Fall semester, and Jrs/Srs were to be on campus Spring semester…but it seems most of the upper class found alternate housing or took LOA, so Frosh/Soph can stay on campus after all for Spring semester. Duke invited back any upper class who still wanted housing next semester and projects it will remain under its target of under 3,600 in campus housing in Spring (normally it’s closer to 5,600/85% of undergrads…plus it rented a few apartment buildings this year). Took some stress off D19 and friends who were trying to figure out logistics for moving out the day before Thanksgiving when none of them have cars to shuttle stuff to storage and they all live 1,000 miles + from school.
D and her friends continue to report workload is crushing compared to last year (and D is only taking 4 instead of 5 classes). D’s are all online except one meets once/week; semester is shorter by 2 weeks and D says the nature of the assignments means 70+ hours on a screen/weekly. These students are used to managing intense academics pretty well and have a ‘work hard, have fun, stay positive’ mentality, but they report they are really struggling mentally and academically like never before. D and several friends were planning on a LOAs next semester if they couldn’t get in person classes. However, the schedule is out for next semester and it looks like my daughter is likely to be able to register for 3- 4 classes in person, so D will return next semester if those classes pan out.
Duke announced in the summer that Spring semester will start two weeks later than normal with no spring break; so there will be eight weeks between semesters this year vs. 3 weeks last year. Duke allowing LOAs up until the day the semester starts.
D19 is still getting covid tested 2x /week. The school does seem to find cases every week (last week, 8 through survey testing plus 9 contact traced or symptomatic). Still, the totals are low; aside from 26 students identified in early August upon return to campus, total # of positives in random ongoing survey testing = 41 and positives due to contact-tracing/symptomatic=43. Duke says most student cases are asymptomatic. I continue to give the school huge kudos for cultivating a strong culture of mask compliance and social distancing among students in addition to having strong testing; obviously having an on campus hospital/labs/amazing health support resources and expertise allows this to happen. They also report they dedicated extensive resources to contact tracing (they have a few hundred trained tracers).
Exit testing is available for anyone who wants/needs it when semester ends at Thanksgiving and they will continue their regular testing of all students.
Ditto, California.
In addition to the lack of PPE, nursing homes/AL facilities would also face a cost constraint problem. Their labor costs would increase if staff members were to use PPE properly. Think of the health care aide moving from room to room, assisting residents with dressing, bathing, eating, etc. By rights, the aide should remove PPE before departing one room and then put on clean PPE before entering the next room, but I cannot imagine this is happening. Doing so would add to the amount of time required to care for each resident, and that additional labor cost would need to be passed along to the payor.
I agree with everything you wrote above about spread during the spring in the NE and also about the outcome in nursing homes nationwide. While Cuomo was slammed for his decision, nursing homes throughout the country saw the same outcome. You are also correct that HCWs are not being tested at hospitals.
UMass Amherst released their plans for spring 2021 on Friday. It is similar to this fall (95% remote classes, only students with essential face to face classes on campus, etc.), however they are inviting first year students and accepted spring xfer students to live on campus, with a maximum of 60% capacity. They began 2x per week asymptomatic testing this semester for on and off campus students, and that’s the plan for spring as well. 80% of students in dorms will be in singles, 20% in doubles. There has been a decent-sized off campus population all sememster, but campus has pretty much been a ghost town. Spring will start 2/1, there will be no spring break, and they will be done in early May.
The semester at home has been a mixed bag for DS20. He has learned that asynchronous classes are not for him, and is lucky that all but 1 of his classes has been taught live. He likes his professors and TAs, but socially it has been a very isolating experience. He has a few friends who are home as well, but their schedules are all so different that it’s been hard to see them except on the weekends. The rest of his friends are all away at schools that seem to be making it work, and while he’s happy for them, he’s ready to move forward.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to keep my less than enthusiastic feelings about how UMass has handled things from him to not add to the low mood. Communication has been very poor, and we find out more from the Class of 2024 parent Facebook page than we do from the school. In fact, he would not have known to make an appointment for spring advising if I hadn’t seen it on Facebook. No emails sent to the students. Nothing. In addition, the decision to pull the rug out from under the kids less than 24 hours after assigning them rooms and allowing them to make move-in reservations in August has left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. To be honest, none of us trusts it won’t happen again. Also, given that one of the major issues at the time was around the demands of the RA union, many parents are questioning what type of supports will be in place for kids on campus if the residence hall staff is sparse or if they decide not to cooperate again. I’m torn between appreciating admin’s caution, and being wholly unimpressed.
I’m not sure how my kiddo will handle it if it’s called off again. On the one hand, he’s mature and logical, and if the metrics at the time indicate that it’s not safe and they need to change course, he will understand intellectually. He’s also incredibly responsible about masking, distancing, and keeping a small, trusted bubble. But emotionally, he’s hitting a wall. He’s dipped and rallied more times than I can count since March, and I’m not sure how many rounds of disappointment he has left in him right now. He needs a win. So we have a plan B. He was accepted at U of Maryland for January 2021 back in February, and they have reactivated his accpetance at his request.
We are headed back to College Park to take a second look, since he hasn’t been there since his junior year. It was his first choice for a little while, but when he didn’t recweive merit $ and wasn’t accepted for fall, he moved on. The plan is that if he still likes it as much as he did the first time around, we will put down the enrollment fee and wait to see what Umass does. Fortunately, the program he was accepted to allows for students to take classes elsewhere in the fall, so we aren’t doing something unethical, and we’ve confirmed that his credits will transfer. If Umass follows through, great. If not, we’ll be investing in some Maryland Terrapins hoodies. In the end, they could shut down as well, but if many places do so at once because the virus is surging in the hortheast, the point is moot. Fingers crossed that whatever happens = a happy and safe kiddo.
@CTCape my niece is at UMD as a freshman. It has not been ideal with the singles, but she is making it work and I think has a lab in person.
As of today, Williams, Amherst and Bowdoin have not had any new positive tests for 7 days.
Great update and really highlights that online classes, increased workload, and relative campus isolation is taking a toll on some of these undergrad students. Cross fingers that she gets those 3 or 4 classes in-person next semester and doesn’t feel the need to take a LOA.
@AlwaysMoving i agree that is a concern that a big surge would show up in 3 weeks. Just as kids head home to…no testing.
I’m really worried about Halloween this weekend for college students. Not at all concerned about neighborhood trick or treaters (please come!) But worried about college parties in the northeast… it’s gonna be cold.
@CTCape that sounds like a good plan and backup plan. Why is UMASS prioritizing transfer students for an on campus experience in the spring? If I were a taxpyer in the commonwealth and parent to a sophomore, junior or senior I’d be pretty disappointed that residents of the state are not given preference at the commonwealth’s flagship university. It is good news for the freshman however.
The transfer students would include instate community college and other 4 year colleges students. Also people who are instate residents but originally went to college out of state but now want to move closer to home.
Tax payers would still be catered to in those cases.
Yes, the transfer students (regardless of whether they are from MA or elsewhere) are comparable to freshmen in their needs–they don’t have an existing group of friends from UMass, they haven’t had a chance to form community or connections, etc yet.
Penn State is grounds for the perfect storm on October 31st - Halloween, the first home game and cold weather.
My nephew is a senior and said it was crazy there during the away game - lots of parties with no masks, but mostly outside.
D just got an email. Amherst College is announcing their spring semester plans tomorrow.
MIT announced changes to their spring calendar - starting semester 2 weeks later than their normal (Feb 16) and then the first 2 weeks will be entirely virtual. Most classes remain virtual but some labs & recitations may go in person the first week of March. No spring break, but a few 3 & 4 day weekends interspersed throughout the semester.
They hope to invite more students to campus however will still be de-densified. The school has not yet announced which students they plan to invite to campus this spring. Only students residing on campus are allowed access to campus buildings/attend in-person.
I agree. I think they have to be very concerned about retention of new students. The negative word on the street about how the first year experience has been is intense, and I’m guessing they want all new students, xfer or otherwise, to feel welcome. I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve heard are looking to xfer out after this semester.
Johnson and Wales in Providence just sent a notice to all of the students that if they are found congregating with more than 15 people, they will be suspended and fined $500.00.