So much for that flexibility that the NESCAC colleges had that HYPSM didn’t…
I wonder if some schools feel that they have learned how to live with/manage around the virus after the fall term’s ‘practice run’?
The schools that imposed strict 14 day arrival quarantines were mostly in cold weather locations. Those first 14 days are going to be tough without the ability to hang out on a picnic blanket in the quad.
Well right, not necessarily noblesse oblige, but certainly they had their reasons to be ultra-conservative. I believe they could have invited back 100% of students just like (MIT & Harvard) neighbors Tufts, BU, and Northeastern did. Those schools, with their frequent mandatory testing programs, have fared very well this fall—looking at their dashboards, they have maintained just a sprinkling of positive cases, no real outbreaks. I for one, would like to see at least my child’s school open up more this spring!
I understand Saillakeerie’s question/point that cases are rising in the country so why increase students on campus, but at my kiddos’ college, they have had literally zero cases among the undergraduates for the past 8 weeks. They have learned how to keep things safe. They only have one grade plus students-in-need on campus, but that is still a pretty extraordinary result, and I find it hard for them to justify bringing less than 100% back in spring even if there are many cases in the country, and I think MIT should bring back their seniors, too ;-). (Unfortunately, I do not think administration cares what I think!)
@EmptyNestSoon2 I understand what you are saying. And by definition the same approach/situation cannot apply to every college in the US. Different colleges in different circumstances will make different decisions.
But ultimately, the more interactions amongst people that exist the more likely there will be Covid spread. And having it in check doesn’t necessarily mean that opening up will be successful. Europe can be instructive here.
And I hope all goes well for every college no matter how they proceed for spring semester and for college students, faculty and staff no matter how they proceed.
And I also know that no colleges care what I think it terms of how they proceed next semester or next fall for that matter.
@TheVulcan Only 2 of the 11 NESCACs didn’t invite all students back. Bowdoin only invited back first-years and Amherst invited back first-years, sophomores, and half of the seniors. All the other NESCACs (Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Colby, Tufts, Conn College, Trinity, Wesleyan, and Hamilton) invited all students back. Bowdoin was the only NESCAC to have almost all classes exclusively online.
I’d love to understand the percentage of in-person classes at each of the NESCACs. Bowdoin will have a larger percentage in-person for spring. TBD on how many. Our D did a virtual student panel discussion as a prospective student for Bates and those three Bates student each said they only had one class in person.
An encouraging mid-term report from MIT Medical:
"In short, we’re doing pretty well. We’ve had 61 positive cases over the first half of the term. All of them were identified quickly, the individuals affected were isolated and supported, and the contact tracing process moved rapidly so that close contacts within the MIT community could be quarantined.
The overwhelming majority of the positive cases captured through our ongoing surveillance testing system appear to have originated from contacts outside the campus community. In fact, the vast majority of cases are among those who live and spend most of their time off campus. We have only seen five cases among people living in campus residences, and our protocols have caught those cases quickly. All of this is against a backdrop of some 100,000 tests administered by MIT Medical over the last eight weeks, with a positive rate of about .05%."
https://now.mit.edu/latest-updates/lessons-learned-as-the-mit-community-manages-covid-19
This is as of Oct 20, and they had some more cases since, but hopefully they will be able to wrap this semester up with no major issues.
Credit to the Williams College student paper for the following report on the situations at Wesleyan and Conn:
Update from Dickinson College for spring 2021: freshmen and sophomores will return to campus in January at the normal time, but will return home for good at spring break. The juniors and seniors will then take their place for the second half of the semester. Apparently some classes will be in person, but the logistics of that are unclear since obviously half the school can’t attend in person half the semester. Students who wish to remain remote can do so.
The college has secured testing services from Broad Institute and contract tracing services from the county.
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Well our school board thinks that the beginning of the second wave is the perfect time to send students back to f2f classes. They begin on Monday. At least they are requiring everyone to wear masks. I wonder how many will comply.
A secretary asked H if he would like to earn an extra hour pay each day by riding the bus every afternoon with the students. I am pretty should his response (to me) is not acceptable on cc.
@TheGFG Very surprised that any school would announce spring plans in the middle of election week (when votes are still being counted). Students are already stressed enough.
Colorado is starting to close up. The big school district that went F2F in August (hybrid for middle and high school) is now going all online next week. CU is going back to online on Nov 16 to the end of the semester. Denver Public schools opened PreK to 5th grade, they made it 8 days (including one snow day) and now it is only PreK-2nd grade in school, the rest online.
The governor is begging people to just stay home.
How many students were allowed on campus this fall?
“Overall, about 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students will return to campus for the fall, joining the 900 who have remained since the spring.”
https://news.mit.edu/2020/reopening-plans-cambridge-city-council-0812
Quinnipiac is at orange level with 83 new cases this week. Classes moved to online through today (though I think that will be extended.) There was a huge off campus party with another college (venue has been shut down due to this violation), and I believe the cases that are showing up are from this and other Halloween parties. Many students are leaving for home. We will probably pick S up early next week as we think number of cases will continue to go up. It’s a shame because they were doing very well, only had 56 cases since the end of August.
They picked a particularly bad time to start socializing off campus. The entire State of Connecticut now seems to be on orange alert. Some of us were predicting back in June that the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving would be a sprint and that seems to be what is unfolding.
Yes, CT cases rising, and for the first time since March we now know quite a few people who are positive. Unfortunately with the holidays coming up, I think we will continue to trend higher.
I really hope some schools change course and test their students before sending them home for Thanksgiving. I’ve seen videos from a number of enormous indoor, unmasked Halloween parties, and that’s just from kids I personally know who will be coming back to NYC. Great.
Otherwise we are going to have a lot of dead grandmas by Christmas.
CU Boulder is doing just that:
Remote learning for the remainder of the semester will begin on Monday, Nov. 16; the last day of in-person classes this fall will be Friday, Nov. 13.
This shift will provide students living both on and off campus the opportunity to return home before the week of Thanksgiving, if they wish.
To support students preparing to return home, we are expanding on-campus COVID-19 testing starting the week of Nov. 9.
Getting tested before traveling is crucial to helping prevent the spread of the virus and protect the health of those around you. We strongly encourage any students planning to leave Boulder to get tested 48 to 72 hours prior to departure at any one of our on-campus testing sites.
If the school doesn’t do it, there is no reason the student can’t be tested immediately before going home, or immediately upon arrival.
Please people, make good decisions.