Ironically, these same people would have sued, had the school kept students on campus and continued on as usual, with in-person classes.
It’s like you are hearing the thoughts running in my high school senior’s head.
@TwoHighSchoolers Make your decision assuming class will be online since that’s likely worst case scenario. In some ways, that just takes away the pressure and you make the decision the same way you would otherwise - is the school in budget? does it have the programs your student wants? is the vibe a fit? This will pass at some point and hopefully the 2021-2022 school year will be back to “almost normal”.
If there’s a best fit, I would not choose a different school just because it’s more likely to have kids on campus (especially since there’s NO way of knowing that right now). Pick the best fit that’s affordable. Period. This is a four year decision, not a six month one. And, at some point, parents of 2020’s are going to have to accept that NO school is going to know their actual plan until later in the summer. You have to take whatever is going to happen for fall out of the equation for the decision. It is UNKNOWN.
@TwoHighSchoolers I agree with not placing too much weight on what happens in the fall, but I would consider the financial standing of the schools you are considering. I hate to say it, but some schools are going to suffer, some will go under, and all will be impacted.
I appreciate that you point out the “East Coast vibe.” We don’t live there, and we don’t personally know anyone in college on the East Coast.
We live in an area of the country that is predicted to hit the Covid-19 peak in late May/early June. Although we have been under Safer At Home orders for several weeks, we have a lot of essential workers in our metropolitan area, which means things are not completely shut down. Unfortunately, finding a roll of toilet paper, a package of flour, or sliced cheese at the stores is very hit or miss.
I worry that opening up college campuses too early will have the colleges scrambling for cleaning supplies, food supplies, etc. I already tried to get toilet paper to my college student that last week that she was still on the campus, and it was impossible. Her roommate’s mom couldn’t buy a roll of paper towels to clean up their dorm.
If you are lucky enough to have access to everything you need where you live, it isn’t like that everywhere. How do we throw our young adults out there to possibly have to “hunt & gather” for themselves? Mine doesn’t take a car to her large urban campus, so if something isn’t available within walking distance or on the internet, she can’t drive all over to find it.
The colleges will be sourcing from the commercial supply chain rather than the household supply chain. Apparently, the supply chains are inflexible enough that production and distribution of food, toilet paper, etc. cannot easily be switched from the commercial supply chain to the household supply chain as people eat and use toilet paper at home more (instead of in restaurants, college dorms, and workplaces). So it may not be too difficult for colleges to get food, toilet paper, etc…
Amazon Prime ???
(or Target or Walmart online)
That is what I suspected. These people and others seem whiny to me. It’s not like these schools expected this. Think you have to give the schools a pass on this semester. If kids didn’t get the experience they signed up for then just grow up, I say to their families. My daughters graduation is online and my sons internship was rescinded due to the virus. We are all affected in some way
Hold it!! Someone’s Mom is cleaning up their kids dorm room? Lol. Send them my way… Lol…
Both of my kids are still on campus. Came home and went back. (long story). We sent them with food /supplies etc. Crazy thing is they are actually like mini adults. They figure it out
It’s good for them to be independent to some respect. My son discovered you can use paper toweling or Kleenex if you run out of toilet paper
I won’t tell you my daughter became a cave women with some friends and hunted and gathered some industrial rolls of toilet paper after they closed campus but still had 1 building still open. Not optimal but they find a way. Both can cook. They aren’t starving. They are both locked away in their apartment.
Fall will be interesting. If safe would they rather study online at home with you or at school with newly made friends? This will be their freshman experience. Not the one we all envisioned but still their own and historical.
As stated this is a 4 year ride not a 6 month one. To me nothing really changes. Some schools will have to cut staff, programs and I would look out for that. There’s always a gap year also.
The Los Angeles Times had an interesting article about the UC System challenges with the Coronavirus. The total unexpected costs in March were $558 million and that each month will have additional losses due to a loss of revenue in housing, dining, increased financial aid, and most importantly, elective procedures at UC health campuses.
To make matters worse, California is facing a deficit of $35 billion. Gov. Newsom is preparing for a revision of his budget plan. A spokesman for the California Dept. of Education said that the revision could include budget cuts. The original budget released earlier this year included $217 million in additional funding for the UC system but that is off the table according to UC President Napolitano. In fact, there is a good chance that they will be facing a reduction in state aid instead.
I am sure that this is an issue that public universities throughout the country are facing or will be facing fairly soon.
Do they stay in the dorms? If so, does the college stop providing regular cleaning and toilet paper? My S also received permission to stay on campus because he needs some special equipment for his project. He still gets regular cleaning and toilet paper. He did run out paper towels though. He used to buy them himself at a local Walgreens but I didn’t want him to leave his campus so I ordered from Costco for delivery to him.
I strongly disagree. I hope colleges wait until the last possible minute in order to make the best decision based on the facts at the time.
Totally agree with @homerdog , assume online at worst for fall. Personally, I don’t believe it. I bet August start with lower infection rates because of weather and social distancing and maybe having to mitigate clusters.
I believe in American ingenuity and businesses will have testing and tracking in a good place by summer. Maybe, just maybe we’ll get lucky with the antiviral drugs showing promise right now.
I wish we could get a lawsuit reprieve for this disaster… like insurance policies have - Acts of God.
they will all announce after June 1st…once they have deposits!
they are both in onsite or off site apartments. I was just having a little fun here. It was a building that was closed to students. Yes the dorms have toliet paper etc.
And my senior as well. He has urban schools with 40,000 students and rural schools with 2,000 students and he wasn’t able to do campus tours in the fall and he cannot get his head around comparing apples and oranges especially when they might all be bananas in the fall!
My daughter lived in a suite in a freshman village (95% of freshman lived there). There were no cleaning supplies or TP provided, and certainly no cleaning. All schools are different in what they provide.
Anyway, wearing a mask and staying 6’ away helps protect you from inhaling the virus, but it isn’t getting rid of it and the virus isn’t going to just die away. If we leave our protective bubbles, we’re at risk. The colleges can’t do anything to change that. All it takes is for one of those returning students to carry the virus back and a whole dorm can catch it. Even a person who has already had it or who tests negative can carry it on their clothing or belonging (if we are to believe the reports that it can live on bags and bananas and boxes).
Will colleges take that risk? Will people? Are you willing to go back to school if the schools say “Hey, there is nothing we can do except wipe door knobs and desk tops. We won’t be reducing class size or giving single dorm rooms. If you get Covid 19, you will be asked to leave campus.”
I think the risk is not just for the students, but also for the staff and faculty. I doubt students will be invited back on campus for the fall if schools are not reasonably certain that staff and faculty will not be at risk.
Most students aren’t likely to be allowed back on the campus to stay in their dorms if it’s still necessary for them to wear masks.
Why do you think so? I think masks will be the new normal for a while.
Right, they can instead go to work in an office building with thousands of other people crammed on elevators and shared bathrooms they arrived at after taking the subway. Much safer.