I don’t necessarily think being less specific is being dishonest. It might be the other way around. We don’t want them to promise something just to lure the students in. And what if they were wrong in the details then people will get upset at them.
In this kind of climate I don’t mind the disclaimers - in general
@Nhatrang Right. I think the easiest policy is just no leave of absences will be given. That’s straight forward and everyone gets it. But some schools (maybe most T20 universities or LACs) want to try a more nuanced approach and then react accordingly when the number of leaves is finally known. In Bowdoin’s case, they will report out fall’s plan in June. Two weeks later they will know how many absences have been approved and they can do what they need to do in July to make it work for them. Students can’t have their cake and eat it too right now. There will be risks if you take a leave, don’t take a leave, transfer, and on and on…
My point is that the CSUs are not even willing to try to develop a plan to open on campus in the fall and resigned to the fact that all classes will be online. And once they close the campus for the first quarter/semester, highly unlikely they allow on-campus living or classes the rest of the academic year.
They basically gave up the first week in May (3-4 months before school starts in the fall), which if my student was attending one of those colleges, I would be very pissed and would seriously consider other options.
Add Susquehanna as another school starting early, no fall break or midterm, and ending at Thanksgiving.
My gut feeling is that Bowdoin will be like many other colleges and have students back on campus, albeit with a modified in-person/online classes modified schedule. And if this is the case the number of students taking a leave of absence or gap year will be minimal as it will be hard for those students to not commit to the fall when most of their classmates are going back.
You and your kid are not the CSUs’ target student, which is the local (usually) commuter student (often with low financial limits and/or other work and family obligations), not a traditional student from a moneyed family looking for a luxury class residential college experience. It is not like you are sending your kid to commute to CSULA, CSUDH, CSUSM, or equivalent.
Seems like a trend - smart, makes total sense. Bring kids back at the least risky time, test/mitigate as much as possible on campus, and send them home only once - for 2 months. Hopefully all schools will go this route.
IUP’s Announces Plan - It’s a glimpse of what is coming.
@suzyQ7 And, bonus, our kids get to go back to school sooner! I know ours will be very ready by early August. Late August was going to be a very long time to wait to go back. D21 starts high school Aug 8th so “school” will feel (hopefully) in full swing around here and it will be good if S19 is also back.
I’m not sure we all have the whole CSU thing correct. They said ‘a small number of in-person classes would be allowed if such instruction could not be accomplished virtually and was considered indispensible to the university’s core mission’, quoted from the NYT article linked below. Turns out that the SJSU president thinks that could be as many as 25% of classes.
The article also discusses the potential fall out from not having football at some of these schools, and how different parties have interpreted what CSU’s chancellor said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/sports/ncaafootball/cal-state-college-football-coronavirus.html
From the two schools that mine go to . GWU has been saying “we are looking at all options and will report back mid to late June”. But they have a hospital right on campus and a medical school, etc etc. Nothing is off the table.
RIT had the president on a town hall, and also on some news channel. They intent is to bring the students to be on campus, but likely the classes will be online with some in person (those that cant be online) . Keep in mind that most Sophomores and up either live off campus or have their own bedroom , or maybe share with one person in apartment like housing. Only the freshman have 2 to a room public bathrooms. I know they are not allowing forced triples . They mentioned that the enrollment numbers were likely to be down due to Internationals and the financial aspects as RIT is a private university (SUNY CUNY might be better options then). THey also suprisingly said that the transfer were also down, where I have heard that they are up at other institutions .
Classes I believe were to start the 31st for both . I would suspect they would all go the “go home at Thanksgiving” route , that seems to popular. Ithaca College going to the “we will start in Oct” seems to the outlier right now.
On the CSU decision, since they are mostly commuter, could see why it might be the easiest to do, also with how many students they deal with. I once walked around a CSU. They have more parking lots than dorms.
“UT-Austin and NYU have figured out this residential living and in-person instruction situation.”
UT Austin, still has more figuring out to do, according an article in a Texas paper,
“The university is still figuring out how the adjusted schedule will affect course syllabi, dorms and campus events that are normally held after Thanksgiving.”
“I think this shows that taking the cheaper, in-state option might not necessarily be the best choice.”
The biggest factor, as we all know, for picking colleges is affordability, because where you apply is also based on your income, that’s why UCLA at 120K apps gets double USC’s
If you’re a family in CA making an income of $75K, and you see USC’s sticker price is $72K, you’re not applying especially if you don’t get good advice from the GC. However if the GC says to see the FA packages to see the true cost, you’ll see that you will good aid but still have to pay $6K and your student will to do work-study for another $6K.
The UCs and CSUs will be ok because most of their freshman classes are lecture based, the one place where they will have a dropoff would be labs or other hands-on courses.
Colleges that promote peer to peer learning is where you’ll get the biggest drop-off, no way you can replicate the experience of seminars, tutorials etc, , as even educators and technologists will tell you. And you’re paying a lot for that.
My kids would have done the same. And I would have been OK with that.
Sigh. I think as we get closer to August, we will hear more similar stories.
CSUs often do have more parking lots than dorms. 
SLO and SDSU are a little different in that they often serve many that are not in their local community. I have heard (but am not sure if it is true) that the powers that be at SLO are working with the CSU system to offer more “learn by doing” on campus. Granted SLO is relatively isolated and not in a large urban environment like some of the other CSUs. As California begins to re-open, I can see campuses in the far north (ex. Humboldt and Chico) also offering more in person classes.
I look at the CSU decision and how early it was announced as very telling. CSU students aren’t likely to be going there for things outside of the classroom education and diploma, and there isn’t a less expensive option. The CSU’s didn’t bother with a plan because it wasn’t worth it.
The UC’s can go ahead and tell students that there might not be a dorm for them because where else can a California resident get a Berkeley level education for $40k all in? Yeah, those kids will suck it up and find an apartment or commute from home.
The colleges that provide an experience and charge for it can’t go online right now because too many students would leave. What happens in October when there is a spike in cases? These universities will have the money, and as long as they don’t force the students from the dorms they won’t be giving refunds. Meanwhile the CSU’s will have wasted zero resources on opening the campus and the UC’s will not have contracted for student housing that isn’t necessary.
"I would be very pissed and would seriously consider other options. "
What are these other options? Typical CSU students have little choice, except for the community college. At this point, they may be able to apply to colleges that have openings, like say Santa Clara, but those are not affordable. Yes Stanford is affordable but you have to wait a year and get in. If your plan for affordable college is Stanford or Pomona, better have another plan.
CPSLO, HSU, and CSUC are in sparsely populated areas, so they are more residential (the “local service area” students are often far enough away that commuting is impractical). The same may apply to some extent to SSU, CSUMB, and CSUCI.
CPSLO and SDSU have become “destination” campuses for those looking for a residential college experience, but this is somewhat unusual for CSUs.
But most CSUs serve mostly local area students who commute or can relatively easily commute from where they lived before college.
NC State and UNC (like Notre Dame) have moved up their semesters and are wrapping up classes by Thanksgiving Break, giving finals remotely. Seems like many colleges may be moving in this direction for the fall semester.
To get an idea of the financial resources of students at the California state colleges, consider that, before covid, over 10% of them reported they’d been homeless in the last year. Over a third are the first in their families to attend college. The large proportion of these students don’t have Bank of Mom and Dad to send them to a private college.