That is interesting - though, because money is fungible, my guess is that they could use the endowment totally as “directed” and still take more of it, while shifting unrestricted funds as needed. Harvard has as much money as a small country, right? There’s room to discuss alternatives beyond bankrupting middle-class (even upper-middle-class) families and/or laying off housekeeping staff.
Here is another article, linked in one of the above.
@“Cardinal Fang” I’m confused by this part:
“ Herman said “from everything that our medical team has told us” the two infected players did not contract the virus last Thursday as several Horns marched to the State Capitol. Too much time passed before the positive test, team doctors are telling the coach. The first player started having symptoms on Sunday, Herman said, more than 48 hours after the march. Another player showed symptoms on Tuesday.”
Perhaps my brain is not working this morning. I read that as the coach saying he doesn’t believe they contracted the virus at the march because too much time had passed. However, it sounds like you are reading that differently and suggest they were possibly infected at the march?
The article then goes on to say the first player’s symptoms started Sunday. That would be three days after the march, if I understand correctly. Is that “too much time” from exposure? I haven’t kept up on the studies, but what is currently considered the incubation period?
I’ve probably missed it, but what would the $$ be used for?
Yes.
For most people “no matter what” has its limit as to what really matters.
[Now we’re just haggling over the price](Now We’re Just Haggling Over the Price – Quote Investigator®).
Bowdoin (and I’m sure other schools?) has reached out to alumni in a big way during this time asking for donations to go into two funds - one, a Covid relief fund and, two, a fund that can be used with no restrictions. I believe alumni have been stepping up.
I’m no expert, but here are some I’ve gleaned from my reading here: To pay blue collar university employees who would otherwise be furloughed; to refrain from onerous tuition increases during the time of COVID; to rent auxiliary spaces if such are deemed necessary; to pay for frequent testing if/when students return to campus; to re-outfit classrooms for lecture broadcasts.
@4kids4us, I was confused by that timeline too. If the players marched on Thursday, and the first player got symptoms on Sunday and the second on Tuesday, that would be exactly the timing we’d expect if the infection occurred during the march.
The incubation period is currently believed to be 2-14 days, with the peak around 5 days, as far as I know.
When I read the statements from these athletic officials, I wonder if they understand how the incubation works. If a bunch of athletes arrive on campus, having just participated in an event that might have spread covid, you can’t just test them all on the spot, and assume that the athletes that don’t test positive are not going to develop covid in the next few days.
Athletic departments keep testing all the athletes, finding a few positives and separating them, and then being surprised when more athletes develop the disease. The military did the same thing. It doesn’t work. You have to quarantine people who were exposed, because they might be incubating the disease but not showing positive yet.
There are restrictions on what funds can be used for and how much can be spent per year. Colleges can’t raid a fund by applying items to it that don’t really belong there so they can use unrestricted funds to offer more financial aid or hire staff. That kind of loose bookkeeping is frowned on by auditors.
It’s not up to colleges to make up the difference between the COA and what families feel they can afford to pay. If a school is too expensive or the experience isn’t worth the cost, middle- and upper-middle-income families have to consider alternate plans, just like low-income families do.
That’s what “full need” colleges do.
Well, except, of course, they use their own judgement instead of asking what families feel they can afford to pay, so not infrequently there is a difference of opinion, but still.
- To start, freeze any tuition increases for 2020/2021 (historically 3% annual increase) and families adversely impacted by CV-19, give significant one-time tuition and fees discounts.
- Spend money to reconfigure classrooms to accommodate more in-person lectures while still keeping faculty physically distanced from students.
- Give faculty, staff, maintenance workers one-time raises or bonuses since they will be doing more work this academic year (online, in-person, and hybrid learning with expanded hours) as well as support work for all of the additional programs and hours needed and safety precautions (cleaning classrooms, buildings, bathrooms more frequently, etc.).
Okay, I’m not crazy! I thought the incubation period was about 2-14 days which was why I didn’t understand why the coach seemed to brush off that they may have been exposed at the protest.
Just thinking out loud, but if these schools that rely so heavily on football intend to play this season, wouldn’t it make sense to have the players isolate for 10-14 as soon as they return to campus and test them at the beginning and toward the end of that isolation? Not ideal obviously but at least then once they have finished their isolation they could be sheltered mostly for now to at least train together. Maybe even require the coaches to be sheltered with them, and not able to be home with their families where they could possibly be exposed. A bubble of sorts. Of course, this wouldn’t work once everyone starts class and travel/games start but it would prevent any spread between and among players and coaches.
Yes, exactly.
For Harvard - if 20% is unrestricted -that’s 8 BILLION. It would be nice if a college with 8 billion available not lay off blue collar employees or cut faculty salaries during Covid. It would be nice if they didn’t raise tuition. Things like that. If they don’t, that information will soon be its own news story and there will be a lot of uproar and more calls for over-endowed universities to pay local/state/federal taxes on a portion of their inflated endowments.
Elon is seeking donations for its Students First Fund to help those families impacted. Looks like only about $350k donated to date.
Elon is also asking for support for the Students First fundraising campaign to assist students who have been economically impacted by COVID-19 and the related economic downturn. If you are in a position to give at any level, please consider contributing to the Students First Fund to provide resources to students whose futures at Elon are now at risk. Students First is an initiative that the entire community can rally around. A gift of any size will make a major impact on students who, because of support from the fund, will be able to continue their Elon education.
It’s very strange to me that people don’t seem to understand incubation of covid. Do they have the same misunderstanding with respect to pregnancy tests? Test right after unprotected intercourse, if she doesn’t test positive the couple won’t have a surprise nine months later? (NO! If you don’t want a baby nine months after unprotected intercourse, go get some emergency contraception right away!)
For that plan to work, they would have to test at the beginning, separate positives from negatives, immediately separate anyone in the negative group who shows symptoms, test again after a week, again separate positives from negatives, continue to separate people who develop symptoms, and test again at the end. They can never be certain that everyone is negative until nobody has tested positive for two weeks. Before then, the last person who tested positive could have transmitted the virus asymptomatically before the person was tested.
@socaldad2002 - Yikes. 3.9% two years in a row. Maybe I should grow fonder of my state flagship?!
If colleges plan to wire classrooms for video, change dining halls, add sleeping areas, remodel bathrooms, set up a testing system, add a quarantine area, etc. we should be seeing a lot of hiring, bids, and construction. Students will be arriving in 8 weeks…
And I’d use that money to give kids an extra semester at the back end of their time at college (if they want), in exchange for everything being on-line this year.
@AlwaysMoving True, but I also think colleges that are announcing this now have probably been working on those things for awhile.
@homerdog I do hope that’s the up side of the football situation. It’s just crazy to me how quickly it spread. And the other up side is that they likely aren’t going to be quarantined when school football season starts!
I have to think that they would mention some % of students would not be invited back on campus if that was their intention. Its 6/19, and H, S, and M made those intentions clear in their statements. Why wouldn’t they?