@Knowsstuff Davidson’s Head of Admissions also just said they’ve only had seven gap year requests so far. So kids are holding off. I think schools are likely to have the highest gap year numbers if they announce all classes online.
@homerdog My guess is Bowdoin is more likely to choose the Beloit Model, because even though they would have to shift around classes a bit, that would solve the problem of having too many people in classes while allowing students to be in-person for all/most of their classes (except those who choose to teach online), and that also reduces movement across campus.
I don’t understand how UCSD thinks they can test 30000 (undergrad) students. If anyone has ever been to that campus you know it’s huge and open. Will they put up a fence and have one gated entrance? Will the students have to wear some sort of bracelet that indicates they’ve been tested?
I’ve been wondering about how all this testing will work, as well. You can certainly test all kids that live in the dorms as they move in, but how do you insure that the off campus kids are tested. Is someone going to be standing at the entrance to every building and checking ids against a list of whose been tested before letting people in? It might work for smaller classes or buildings but imagine the logjam trying to verify each kid trying to enter a 300 person lecture hall.
Where is the money for building temporary housing or renting entire floors of hotels supposed to come from?
Actually, before you criticize, you are the one who is confusing UCSD with USD . The article is correct. University of San Diego is planning on doing its own testing of students and staff. While UCSD might have plans to test as well, the article is not incorrect when it refers to Univ of San Diego’s plan.
Very interesting. Give them the protection and anyone afraid to attend or work at a university or college can do so remotely. Seems logical. I’ll let my kids go.
@ChemAM Your Dad is a Doc? What is his take on this subject? Does he see risks for you, your classmates and the school’s staff?
@homerdog did they mention how they plan to handle food service?
An article in the Atlantic that makes the case schools are being too optimistic for financial reasons: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/colleges-that-reopen-are-making-a-big-mistake/611485/
Read this op-ed with a large grain of salt. The author, college President writes-
Any path forward—for higher education and for everyone in society—requires telling people this truth: Life is going to be hard for the foreseeable future. We are in the early stages of a pandemic that we do not yet fully understand. What we do know is that this crisis was mismanaged from the start. As a result, every aspect of our lives is going to be changed for far longer than we are comfortable.
They are trying to get him to run for Governor in TX on Democratic side. He seems to have ulterior motives. ^^^ I find it interesting that a politician or wannabe politician is advocating for closing society down longer. I found what he wrote above very interesting…Thoughts?
@austinmshauri wrote:
Well. that’s an interesting question because, while I’m no expert, it seems probable that modular housing could be financed like any other construction as a capital expense whereas a hotel tab would have to be paid for out of operating funds. You tell me which sounds more feasible?
@AlwaysMoving not a lot of specifics. This town hall was 90 minutes long and they focused mostly on academics but someone from residential life and someone from medical services also spoke briefly. The res life representative mentioned a few things about food service. Distancing. Being served instead of serving yourself. They’ve been working on plans for all of this stuff for six weeks full time with three different committees and about a dozen people on each committee. It sounded like they’ve hashed out a lot of details but also they don’t want to lay them out right now because (1) it would take forever and the town hall was already 90 min and (2) they want to be flexible and kids won’t be back on campus for another three months and the virus situation is constantly changing.
I think they will give more details when they give the decision in June. That will help students decide. But I do agree with them that, although we are all curious, at some point we have to trust them that they are working on it and will get the details out when they feel like they will be exactly what will happen and it’s a little too early for that.
@homerdog – thanks so much for the detailed summary – super helpful!
I’m very curious about everyone having their own room – or at least half a common room. Can Bowdoin handle that many kids without having to secure off campus housing? Curious if they talked about that.
@homerdog thanks for sharing this info! Colby has been very quiet so we have no idea what they are considering other than the stuff that has been reported in the press. I am hopeful Colby is researching some of these options as well.
@circuitrider, There’s no money in the operating budget to pay for hotel rooms. Any profits from room and board revenue is already earmarked for other things.
I don’t see how temporary structures could be financed as a capital expense either. Even if there was wiggle room in the endowments to allow for it, there are space and time challenges that would have to be figured out. Then maintenance costs for the new structures would have to be added to the operating budget. Colleges are already running at a large deficit. I don’t think they’re looking to add expenses if they can avoid it.
Was on campus today and got to talk to our department chair. Current situation is bleak. No one has any idea how many students will be coming in Fall. Any contingent faculty that doesn’t already have a Fall contract isn’t getting one without layers of approvals. Contingent faculty are not likely to be renewed for Spring term unless departments can justify that they cannot manage any other way.
The college wants students back on campus for Fall if possible. Lectures will be online for any class too large to social distance in classrooms. Labs would hopefully be in-person, although no one knows how that would be managed yet. Caps will likely be removed for online classes. They don’t care about the grading issues that could pose. Administration is seen as trying to save their own hides and everyone else be damned.
Lots of unknowns. I’ve started planning for my office extraction.
Well if schools need more space because they need areas for quarantining and isolating and/or they are going to singles, it is going to cost more money. No way around that.
Some schools just don’t have excess dorm rooms and/or buildings that can be retrofitted. Schools will need room for quarantining and isolating until (if) there is a vaccine, it’s likely no school survive on only remote learning until then…even Williams.
Maybe some schools are planning to charge more for singles? Not sure what I think of that, but they would be able to justify it from a safety perspective.
@AlmostThere2018 They did not talk details about housing but I can surmise a bit. For many of the dorms, a double consists of one room with a couch and closets and desks and another room with the two beds. They could just put one of the beds in the common room of that double. Not truly a single because both kids would have to walk in the door to the common room from the hallway and then one of the kids would live in the first room and the second would live in the attached bedroom. They have quads with a common room and then two bedrooms, one on each side Those could possibly be triples with everyone having their own “room”. So, for much of Bowdoin’s housing, it wouldn’t be like they have one-room doubles that now can only hold one student. They’d still need to be creative and I’m sure this doesn’t cover all kids in “singles” but maybe if some kids take gap year and some leave of absences, they can then figure it out.
Again, I can’t imagine any school reporting out details in May. They want to reserve the right to change their plans to have the best option for August. They said they can make it work so I assume they can. I feel like they’ve been pretty thoughtful in their planning and in their reporting out to the students.
Thinking about the details really makes me realize each school will really have its own solutions. Obviously not everything will work for each school. I heard Scripps is setting up places where class could be outside. That would be nice!
Doesn’t Williams own a hotel that’s basically on the campus? Would think they could use that for housing. And their dorms already have a lot of singles, so they are likely a school that can solve their housing issues more easily than others.
While I don’t think “closing society down longer” should be a partisan issue – it should be predominantly a public health issue – I do agree that an op ed by a prospective political candidate should be considered in that light.