I know lot of people who used to commute for a total of 3 hours a day. Since the pandemic hit and they had to work from home, they have gained back all that time and more. Some don’t even shower in the morning or change out of their pyjamas if they don’t have early video conferences. None of them want to go back to the pre covid work habits. The work/life balance is much better now. They may want to go back to the office once a week to check in and go back to the after work socialising at the pub but not much more.
“When you think about it, a large school with a big off campus population isn’t that much different from an office building or company, where everyone comes in for several hours a day and then goes back home.”
I don’t think that’s totally accurate, at least for undergrads. They stay on campus after their classes to do group projects or to socialize, have dinner together. And they definitely get together on the weekends especially if the school has a lot of athletic events.
The advantage large schools have is much more space to work with and if they’re close to a city, have access to hotels. Also if they had a few 500-person lecture halls, I could see them using those for smaller classes that benefit from peer learning. They could spread out say a 30 student class or seminar in that lecture hall. It wouldn’t be ideal, but doable.
Depending on whose estimate you use, that is supposedly exercise-equivalent to a 0.5 to 1 mile walk. Probably many people who work in tall office buildings regularly walk that far to and from train stations or parking lots.
It sounds as if the Hamilton plan relies heavily on this phraseology which may be native to Clinton, NY:
I think what they mean here (Hamilton people are welcome to chime in) is that single rooms that are presently occupied by three or more people (!!!) will now be occupied by only two people. Am I missing something?
MODERATOR’S NOTE: A user just politely inquired as to why ChemAM was banned. I thought I would share my response with all of you:
<<<I sent the user a one-point warning with this note: “You can’t insult people. Report posts if you feel they violate the TOS or ignore the posts. Those are the two options.”
The reply I got:
“Get off your high horse and either ban me or **** off. Those are YOUR two options.”
That’s the reason for the ban. This is why it’s hard to be a moderator. People see that someone has been banned and jump to the conclusion that it’s due to “heavy-handed moderation.” They don’t see the stuff we deal with. Sigh.>>>
H and I were discussing the idea that significant world events sometimes change the design concepts for homes, and what possible changes one might see in post-pandemic houses. One idea was the “his and hers home offices” soundproofed and with upgraded ethernet, etc. If we were building a new house, would definitely go for that!
Note: Not a Hamilton person, but at some schools there are single, meaning individual, rooms that are large enough to be “natural” triples or quads, as opposed to “forced” ones, i.e. where it’s really a room for one or two, but they squeezed in a second or third. I think they’re talking about the former.
I disagree about the work life balance. With everyone working from home there are no boundaries. People set up meetings or ping you at all hours because they know you are home and have nowhere to go. Things that could have been accomplished by stopping by someone’s desk and talking for 7 minutes now take a 30 minute zoom call. A friend was joking with me saying he used to say, I can’t meet right now because I’m running to catch my train - now it’s like sure I can do a 7pm meeting. His D is an entry level banker. More all nighters than ever before. Used to be there was sympathy and they would cut off meetings if it was getting late. Now everyone is home so the assumption is you can work til all hours. It’s much more exhausting!
My spouse and I have been WFH for awhile, so we (that would be me) built a very nice shed in the backyard for her office. It’s finished very nicely and has HVAC and electricity, but for zoning reasons it doesn’t have plumbing and is technically a shed. She is on conference calls all day and often at 5am, so she loves having her own space.
I’m a numbers dork, so I use the kitchen table. I need the room to spread out and because it’s the kitchen table I have to clean up every evening.
The kids use my office.
But my neighbor is the real genius! He uses a 20 foot camping trailer. We removed one of the bench seats along the dining table so he could have a proper chair and hung a curtain behind him. The trailer is plugged into the house and has everything he needs from AC to a kitchen. It only takes about an hour to remove his stuff for a weekend of camping.
If you’re planning to have a college student at home, they could even sleep in it! 
@circuitrider Not a Hamilton person, but could “single room quads and triples” mean non suite style rooms? For example ,S18 lived in a triple freshman year that was one big room with three beds. He lived in a what was called a triple sophomore year. It had one single bedroom, one double bedroom and a common area.
Back to heavy-handed moderation: Discussion of WFH and work/life balance is fine in the general COVID thread, but this thread is specifically for school issues. Thanks a lot!
Saw a Hamilton quad on our tour. It was 2 rooms plus a bathroom. 2 sets of bunks on one room and the other room was a living/study area.
Just noticed that Harvard Extension School will be remote for both undergrad and grad for the fall and spring semesters.
Um, Montana, Texas, California, Florida? Even Wyoming has instate students who live 10 hours from campus and have to drive because there is no other way to get to Laramie.
Hamilton has some rooms that are quite large. They are natural quads because they are large enough to hold four people comfortably. There are no forced triples or quads on campus.
Those single quads are highly desirable by some. They include a private bath and a separate living/common room.
Students assigned to those this fall will feel they won the lottery!
(Edited to add: Sorry. Just saw @wisteria100’s post stating the same.)
It’s neither a positive nor a negative. It’s nothing, because we already knew it. This is not news; Redfield was stating the obvious. We know that there are lots of people who are infected and haven’t gotten a positive test. We know that in some states, there are lots of people who believe they’re infected and can’t get a test.
So now the NBA tested a bunch of players, 302 of them, and 5% test positive.
Do we really think college sports are going to happen in the fall? Is Uninfected U really going to send out their football ambassadors to contract covid and bring it back to their campus and their city? Is your school in the mood to send your team to an away game at University of Texas? Are you happy to have University of Arizona athletes in your stadium and in your community? (Texas and Arizona just selected for current examples; in August it could be your state.)
We be interesting to see the estimates. I have climbed the steps of a couple office towers in charity events. 37 stories and 41 stories. About 10-13 minutes (in casual not officially timed herd groups – best times 5-6 mins range). You walk a mile in 15 mins at 4 mph. Have a tough time seeing the two as being equivalent.
And on a treadmill at 4 mph and 10% incline, you will climb 528 feet in 15 minutes (traveling a mile). Less than the 64 floors referenced. That is supposedly the exercise equivalent (or really less) of walking 1/2 a mile on a flat surface?
Few issues with steps in high rise buildings. Often ventilation is pretty bad. Get people huffing and puffing up 50+ floors and that can’t be good for Covid spread. Also will be leaning on handrails as they go. A lot of sanitation required.
For college dorms (which tend to be 4-6 stories), makes a lot more sense to use stairs. Much shorter distance. Younger people better able to handle. You can prop open doors to reduce surface touching. My office is 7 stories and that is what we have done. I have taken the steps pretty much exclusively for about 8 years and you would be surprised the number of people who struggle with 6-7 floors of steps (or even 2-3). People who you often walk a mile or more with to lunch or their car at a parking lot.
Oh I had no idea it was this. I thought out was a quad in the sense of bedrooms for four around a common room. So like if it used to be two 2-person rooms with a common room in the middle, now only one person in each of those rooms making the whole deal into a double.
“Twelve percent on campus and 46% away from home are compatible. That would mean 12% on campus, 34% off campus, 54% at home.”
Right, that’s how the numbers break out, I wasn’t sure I could link the source. This number does include for-profit colleges and of course they’re all from home. The other surprising thing was that only about 50% of private colleges first-years live on campus, I thought that would much higher.