Yes, it will be uncertain. And some people won’t be out much before there is a vaccine, or maybe even afterwards. Everyone has different tolerance for risks and personal circumstances. Some parents will keep their kids home this summer, some thru the fall, some thru the entire year or some want the whole 4 years to be nearby. Students will sort themselves out on college campuses accordingly
I’m sure that you can add NYC to the list of not-ready-for-prime time (may 1)!
California will be interesting to watch over the next two weeks. The first cases were upper income folks – those that can afford to travel for work and pleasure. But based on reading newspapers, I’m starting to see more COVID growth in lower income zip codes now, and that includes a high minority population, uninsured and with co-morbidities. No way LA and Oakland/SF are opening up in ~3 weeks.
So NYU is giving a covid 19 relief grant. Are there any other school offering a Covid 19 relief grant to students?
Michigan has had this in place for emergencies if needed
What’s a COVID relief grant?
@homerdog https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/financial-aid-and-scholarships/covid-relief-grant.html
Michigan has this as an emergency fund but their using it for covid if needed.
Most good schools have funds set aside for this purpose. They’re all on case-by-case basis and some more generous than others.
The WFU president and his wife kick off the Wake Forest Crisis Relief Fund with a $100,000 contribution:
Wake Foresters across the globe are answering the call to do what they can, where they can, to join the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We could not be more proud of their response.
Keeping our community safe and protecting the integrity of our students’ education remain our priorities. To do that, we have aggressively cut costs where we can. For example, we are implementing a hiring freeze and delaying progress on all capital projects. Ultimately, we are searching for every way we can preserve our greatest asset: the people who make us who we are.
We are grateful that so many of you have reached out to find out how you can help members of the Wake Forest family during this time of crisis. We have established an umbrella fund to facilitate this generous spirit. Unlike many endowed or current use funds, the Wake Forest Crisis Response Fund is set up specifically to provide maximum flexibility in both providing support to those who need it most, and providing the most efficient means of contribution for those who want to help.
Our initial goal is to raise $500,000 for this urgent need. Dr. and Mrs. Hatch are dedicated to helping our community and have made a gift of $100,000 to aid our collective effort. We hope you will consider joining them in supporting fellow Wake Foresters in need.
And why can’t the college kids get a stimulus check too?
They can, if they aren’t dependents.
Based on the timeline laid out by Governor Cuomo this morning, I’m starting imagine the scenario may realistically be that students will not be able to live on campus for most of the 20-21 school year. Based on what he said, it sounds like we won’t be able to return to situations of high density until there is a vaccine that has been administered to the whole population. That would mean no dorm living and no large gatherings, such as sporting events, festivals, etc, until there is a vaccine. In the meantime, we will be able to gradually resume normal activities with protective measures in place, such as masks, gloves, and testing. I think this may mean that if students live locally to their college, either at home, or in an apartment, they will be able to be on campus with the protective measures in place. However, if they don’t live locally, they would be completely online for most, if not all, of the first year.
What if there is never a vaccine? Or not one for several years? I certainly hope one or more are successful sooner rather than later, but seems we will have to start normalizing things before the Fall.
Maybe college doesn’t go. But I just don’t see NYC residents (or those in other urban areas) staying inside un-airconditioned homes during 90+ degree days this summer.
^^ Good point about the air conditioning. Cuomo was saying that life will start to resume gradually, but the biggest problem is with high density situations, since the virus spreads like wildfire.
“Normal” if there is no widely available effective vaccine could be rather different from what “normal” was before, with people being more skittish about going into high density situations (including classrooms, college dorms, restaurants (including college dorm dining halls), mass transportation (including airplanes as well as trains and buses), taxi/rideshare, etc.), particularly if they have risk-increasing medical conditions (like about a third of college-age Americans). Also, people will be more reluctant to go to the physician’s office or hospital.
It’s one thing for colleges to have to make other plans for fall (either online or pushing the fall semester off) but K-12 cannot wait. So many kids are already falling behind. Many districts seem like they aren’t teaching anything right now and most school districts are not going to do remote learning well enough. Add on that parents might be able to go back to work and what are K-12 students supposed to do if they are not in school?
Cuomo said what he said but I’ve read a number of experts that say kids in school by fall is very important.
On the other hand, Japan is having a second surge after only relaxing social distancing for four weeks.
No doubt in my mind that K-12 schools will be open in the fall, albeit with extra precautions. Society needs the parents back to work at their jobs, they cannot keep them home with their kids indefinitely and most cannot afford day care if the kids are home by themselves. There will be a big push to get these kids back in school.
Colleges and boarding schools are a different story. I do not see how residential colleges can be on campus in the fall, way too many students from all over the U.S. and world to risk an outbreak. The liability to the college is too great to treat and isolate hundreds of students who might be infected. While online instruction is not ideal, the colleges will still get their tuition payment and it won’t disrupt the following year’s freshman classes.
It’s interesting, so yesterday we were talking with our friend’s sophomore who’s at Cal Poly SLO and she said that since they are on a quarter system and their motto is “learn by doing” that the college is “encouraging” them to take next fall quarter off (instead of online instruction), which she plans to do as she has plenty of credits to still graduate in 4 years.
All of this is making me wonder which colleges will stick together in their plans. Will it be regional? Will urban colleges make one decision and rural colleges a different one? Will schools that have 90% of their students from in-state go back to campus but those with kids from all over be online or moved to January?
@guava123 I checked on line when the stimulus was first announced. One son works an average of 10 hours a week on campus. The job ended of course when they came home for on line classes. From what I read, he gets nothing, students under age 17 (or 16?) qualify for $500. He had 7 or 8 weeks work for the rest of the semester.
Sweden stayed open the entire time, and had a far better experience than NY. Makes you wonder if it was worth it.
@roycroftmom wrote:
That remains to be seen. According to the latest data Stockholm has only 4,575 cases but 543 deaths. If accurate that would be a 12% death rate. That tells me that Sweden’s not really testing for the virus and it makes it possible that both the rate of infection and death count are both vastly undercounted.
Also, Sweden has a population of roughly 10 million, and Stockholm, the largest city has fewer than 1 million residents, making it about the size of Austin Texas or Jacksonville FL, so it’s not really an apples to apples comparison.