@silverpurple Along with homeschooling check to see if your state dept of education has virtual schools you can use. SC has virtual courses and a virtual k-12 charter school, both free and have dedicated teachers who teach there. Some larger districts in Our state are also providing a virtual alternative which again is free and meets all state requirements.
Parents have the choice of these plus obviously homeschooling if don’t want to send their child back. As someone else note for their state, once families choose to not do f2f they can’t change later on unless there is a vacant seat. Our state now has high, medium, and low statuses for districts that determine what they can do. SC is currently seeing a huge surge but there are some areas that will meet criteria to open in person. D who teaches 3rd grade will likely start online unless our district does better fast.
We might be fine by mid August but hard to wait until last minute. Teachers need to plan. Parents need to find alternative child care if they keep kids home or if only hybrid is offered. Districts can’t wait forever to make a decision.
@Hippobirdy – I have been ordering fabric masks from a couple of different places, and agree with your comment that one size does not fit all. Inconsistency even within one order from the same company. Trial & error!
Oberlin is distributing five washable masks per student and will be enforcing mask use in class and on campus more generally. Students (including the small % living off campus) will have to sign an agreement to comply with the health guidelines the college sets, including mask wearing in public, social distancing, regular testing, daily health self-checks, etc. By offering a three-semester year, every student should be able to have two semesters on campus in single occupancy rooms. There will be a mix of roughly 40% in person, 40% hybrid, and 20% remote classes. Dining will be grab and go or in the dining hall at reserved times to ensure reduced density.
With all the talk of reopening I think a little bit of perspective would be in order.
On March 11, when college campuses began to close, there were 400 new daily confirmed cases nationwide.
Today we are two orders of magnitude (that is, 100 times) higher than that.
Yes, there were fewer tests available in March, but the CDC Director Tom Frieden just said in an interview: “As a doctor, a scientist, an epidemiologist, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in most states where you’re seeing an increase, it is a real increase. It is not more tests; it is more spread of the virus” .
For some additional perspective, China just locked down 400,000 people over 18 new confirmed cases in the region. Because they understand that the confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
Any college promising in person instruction this fall is being either irresponsible or disingenuous.
"The Flex@Pitt program is said to allow students to experience classes “in person, remotely, synchronously or asynchronously,” in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Pitt officials said last week that students would not be required to attend class in person for the fall.
But Cudd added that a classroom experience must be made available for students, and faculty are encouraged to physically come to the classroom where possible.
Cudd said in situations where instructors cannot come to campus, students can still be in classrooms to connect with their peers, with the instructor visible on screen to engage with students, field questions or conduct discussions. She said graduate or undergraduate teaching assistants, faculty colleagues or staff members may be utilized in their stead to facilitate classroom interaction."
Later in the article:
“Pitt completed an audit of all classroom spaces two weeks ago and whether they met social distancing requirements. She said courses with very large enrollments may need to be fully remote, but most lectures and recitations with enrollments below 60 students can take place in-person. Courses with an enrollment between 60 and the undefined “very large” cutoff number may need to operate in a “rotated cohort mode,” Cudd said. This would mean only certain students attend classes on select days.”
Shoot. I cannot find it now but there’s a story that shows how far apart students would have to be to have six feet around them. In a cafeteria, it ended up being 12 percent capacity. In a classroom of 100 seats, they fit 18-20 kids. I don’t understand how any class larger than 20 could meet. I think some are envisioning more like 50 percent capacity but that’s not the case. The story had a professor pretend to teach that class of 20 in the 100 seat lecture hall with a mask on. He said he thought it wasn’t worth it. He couldn’t see the facial expressions of half of the kids. Discussion would be difficult since he likely couldn’t hear the kids farther back since they were masked. And then that’s the class that’s taped for the kids who aren’t there? The story made it really clear that classes cannot happen with the mask and social distancing measures and schools will either not follow the distance rules or give up and be all remote.
Covid-19 testing will be required for all students. There will also be testing for faculty and staff. Tests will be administered upon students’ arrival and then weekly throughout the rest of the in-person term.
I remember reading about a college fair where students were not told which school booths they were attending. They simply spoke to the reps, learned about the programs, traditions, opportunities, etc, without the benefit of knowing the school name. At the end of the evening, students were asked to “rate” the schools in order of interest. The non name-brands consistently come out on top. So yes, it would seem that many students are “paying for the name on the paper” because it they were truly following their gut, they would end up somewhere else.
Similarly, I was recently speaking with a school guidance administrator who said the number of kids from our HS that end up transferring from their name brand school, or “dream school” has increased significantly in the last 5-8 years, indicating they were possible choosing the name and not the experience.
Interesting approach - seems like a ploy to retain students and avoid gap years maybe.
In recognition of the extraordinary circumstances and of this academic year and the uncertainty we face in the year ahead, the total cost of attendance has been reduced by 15%. Tuition, room, and board for the 2020-2021 academic year will be $63,200.
Williams details. I don’t know how to feel about this. This was the plan I was thinking Bowdoin would choose but, after reading it, I’m not sure it’s great either. No good choices.
No sports competition. Likely no in-person classes. No dining, only take out. Cocurricular activities mostly remote. Tuition was decreased likely because they are only requiring three classes instead of four and winter term was cancelled.
But they get to go back and be with friends instead of having a mad dash to find a house in Maine like so many Bowdoin kids!
@Knowsstuff - D already had to sign a waiver from the office of professional practice to do her co-op this summer.
IMO, we are way too litigious of a society. Everyone knows that if you send your kid back to school there is a risk they could get the virus. Most schools are making come back to campus a choice. If a family isn’t comfortable with the risk, they should keep their kid home and do courses on line.
Colleges should not get sued for trying to stay open. IMO, they are like an essential business.
@momofsenior1 I wouldn’t ever likely sue either but maybe it’s not parents suing just because their student gets the virus. Maybe they would sue if the treatment they were getting wasn’t top notch. For kids in dorms who will rely on food being brought to them, the health center checking up on their symptoms, etc., there could be cases where they don’t act quickly enough to get a student to a hospital. That’s the kind of thing that I’m sure will be super rare but it could happen. I haven’t read the details of any school’s plan but, if S19 were going back, I would want to know exactly what to expect for quarantine care.
Does that imply Williams won’t refund room/board if they go remote? “In recognition…of the uncertainty… “. If it does, that’s an interesting proposition: discount to take into account the gamble.
I agree. Colleges should not be vulnerable to law suits, all they try to do is to try to balance competing interests, it’s tough to please everyone. The waiver is a good step, but it can be challenged in court. I hope Congress has some kind of Bill to protect them.
Cornell released this ridiculously long report (97 pages!) and somewhere in it was a stat on classroom density ranging from 13-24% of past use. Classrooms range from a table with six chairs around it to lecture halls that hold hundreds.
Interesting that Williams’ plan includes optional pass/fail for the full year – from what I recall, most schools which had offered pass/fail this past spring have moved back to regular grading for the fall.