My college is mandating that students wear masks in the classroom. Students and parents both have to sign a form stating they agree to abide by the new campus rules, and if a student is found in violation of them, they will be sent back home to finish the semester via remote learning. Professors have been told to immediately report any student who breaks the rules. Any student who shows up in my classroom without a mask will be required to leave, and my college will back me in that. I can’t imagine your college does/will not have something similar.
I can’t control what they do in their dorms, but I do have control over my classroom. So should you.
@ProfSD I hope my employer will make students sign an agreement like the one you describe. However, they are so afraid of offending the customer. I am getting weary of waiting for a statement about protocols. I won’t say where I work but I am beginning to think that they are holding off on announcing a plan because they know it won’t be appealing to many of the students, and they will lose customers. Our enrollment management office is deathly afraid of losing students to southern colleges within a day’s drive. However, with infection rates rising in the South, I wonder if those colleges won’t be forced to change their opening plans.
I work at a tuition-dependent institution without a large endowment.
I think it’s a LAC term. I don’t have any classes with an enrollment over 25, so I always say classroom. There are a few courses at my college with slightly larger enrollments, but not many. I think of lecture halls as locations for courses with larger enrollments, and places where the professors truly spend all the class lecturing. I also believe in a more “give and take” style with my students, and “classroom” reflects that. My classes all have a significant amount of discussion. On average, I don’t lecture for more than 15-20 minutes if I can help it. At 15 mins. you can see eyes start to glaze over! Although my undergrad education contained a lot of courses with the “sage on the stage” model (that I sometimes loved), I prefer having a discussion with my students as much as possible. (I attended a university with an undergrad enrollment around 10,000.) That’s the benefit of small classes at a LAC.
@ProfSD thank you. That’s makes perfect sense and also confirms what people say about lac orientation towards skilled teaching as a core ethos.
I never experienced it and this is a small but real world example of that in action.
I had great profs but not what you describe in your current classroom.
It sounds more interesting. And buying crib notes wouldn’t work. I really don’t think more than one or two professors knew who I was after class ended.
Maybe, but only those that can afford to do so without significant consequences. There are not many that fall into that category. Everyone is losing money, and for many it’s a matter of survival. That would only buy you a semester of tuition, at most. Parents are not willing to pay for remote learning unless you are at an elite college where they are mainly interested in paying for the name on the diploma. In that case (as we have seen on this thread), they are more than willing to stick it out. Again, most colleges and universities do not fall in that category. At CC we tend to only focus on the elites, so the view is skewed.
As @NJSue expressed, most faculty and staff working in higher ed understand this. We talk about it behind the scenes regularly.
“In college towns, health care providers are prepping for an onslaught. Faculty and staff, meanwhile, feel abandoned, excluded from the decision-making process as a coterie of VPs weighed financial considerations against health risks. Somehow, no one in the ivory tower’s executive suite bothered to take pedagogic concerns into account—or to consult with those who practice pedagogy professionally.”
Lol, our college actually has a building named “Classroom Building”. I guess they were rather lax about finding people to name their buildings after, since another building is named “Technology Building” and several others have similarly uninspiring names.
Why do people continue to write that students are “mainly paying for the name on the diploma” for elite schools. I’m sorry. That is just not the case. Please stop.
I think it’s more that parents/students at elite colleges are more likely to be willing to pay for online instruction as a temporary adjustment to an overall educational experience, whereas families who are very focused on cost and ROI will not be willing to pay top dollar for an elite school over, say, a community college or state directional. Many (most?) college students in the US see college as the orderly acquisition of credits toward a credential. They are unwilling to pay for an “experience.”
My D’s alma mater has announced their plan: first years and sophomores will be on campus in fall, and juniors and seniors in spring. There will be an option for remote instruction.
So sorry. That’s not what I meant. It’s late and I’m tired. It was sloppy typing, and I should have chosen my words more carefully. I didn’t mean people at elite colleges and universities are paying mainly for the name. I should have said, “unless you are at an elite college, and are mainly interested in paying for the name on the diploma.” My D20 is attending a T15 LAC and we are not paying for the name. There are SOME parents at elite schools that are though. (Again, we see it on CC all the time.) Apologies.
ETA: @homerdog I hope you have seen enough of my posts on this thread and others to realize that is really not what I meant.
If schools and Colleges are requiring masks to be worn, which I agree with , I hope they are planning on suppling them ,esp at the k-12 level or tells asap they are not so if you can, you have some time to get them. I have found the one use mask are much easier to wear, I am mostly Work form home until the summer ends at least so I do not wear a mask a lot, but if my kids need them everyday for school I gotta buy some, I doubt I want them wearing the same one day after day, and right now they are still pretty much on lockdown w me.
@NJdad07090 We are starting to put together supplies of masks for each of our high schooler and college kiddos. Some homemade, some disposable. Agree shortages of PPE could be issue as elective health services open up more, or there’s more demand with regular flu season.
That is hysterical! I am used to the over-naming of rooms, labs, teaching positions, endowed chairs…The xyz visiting professor of Psychology.
My university continues to house the 30th year reunion class in this dreary building referred to as low rise or high rise # something. I keep thinking they hope that some deep-pocketed alum will pony up the funds to update and name it, but it has not happened yet.
Having observed laundry habits up close for nearly four months now, I will be ordering plenty of masks, if my son returns to school.
I grabbed two boxes of the surgical ones when I saw them at Costco, but gave up attempting to wear one within two minutes and instead returned to my fabric one. I need to have my son try it to see if he finds it more comfortable than I do.
@CT1417 we are finding some of the disposable masks have a bit of off gassing. Some homemade ones need mending/reinforced stitching… definitely not one size fits all, each kiddo has their preferences.