I’m not sure what post of mine you are referencing because I actually posted previously I do agree Harvard students should have a seat at the table. That does seem reasonable to me.
I have problems with other things, such as the manner in which the Harvard student expressed her unhappiness in the op-ed and also the insinuation that somehow Harvard should kow-tow to student demands because of the possibility those students might not become donors to the university later on.
Merely stating the obvious-very unhappy students are problematic for colleges in many ways.
@homerdog yes you are completely right with that observation. Add the “bad” options and see what they say. Good point.
I’m just thinking like @bluebayou mentioned. The annual employee survey where everyone complains about compensation inequities and technology spend. Not much changes and it makes them feel it’s a waste of time. When the intentions are actually good at the outset.
But I digress. A survey would have been nice and was only trying to guess why they may have opted out on that idea.
University of Arizona’s president (a cardiac surgeon) said on CNN tonight that he’s optimistic that school in the fall will open with kids back on campus. UA developed its own in-house test, will be set up to test all students/faculty, trace, and isolate. Why can’t Harvard, with all it’s supposed brilliance, figure out a way to do this? Could it be that students who go there should just be grateful, regardless of what they get? This problem will be with us until we get a vaccine, and no one can say when that will be (it sure won’t be ready in Jan for those schools thinking of pushing school back).
Its a heck of a lot more than just “their precious social lives”. It’s being a TA, doing an internship, doing research, participating in an entrepreneurship EC to get your idea to market, etc. In our family discussions we felt that the classes are only about half of the actual learning. And for current sophomores and juniors, it’s not just 1 semester of interruption, it’s a whole year (this spring, summer and potentially fall).
Some students, probably many, will be unhappy no matter what decision a college makes.
Many classes online instead of in-person => lots of complaining.
In-person classes, and someone dies or suffers long term injury from COVID-10 => lots of complaining.
It is obviously a lose-lose situation for the colleges and their students.
For the cynical among us…let’s be blunt. Colleges and Universities are a business. Students and many of their parents are customers / clients. The point of any ‘survey’ or inclusion at the table is to keep the revenue from the student coming in and to avoid any damage to the institution’s on going business and ‘brand’. Students have choices here and can potentially pull their financial support on a temporary or even maybe even permanent basis. Maybe Harvard feels they have the upper hand due to the strength of their brand and rich endowment.
@GMgiant I agree and that’s what I meant when I said it would be to the schools’ advantage to ask the students what their plans would be. If it’s not safe for kids to be on campus and the students’ second choice is do-able from a financial standpoint of the school, then they are more likely to have their students enroll and not take a break.
It’s a complicated equation. I would strongly prefer to return to teaching in classroom and I know my students would as well. But given the risk to my health (moderate) and to that of my DH (immunocompromised), I hope we’re given the option to teach online in the fall (UGH). I was already wiping down surfaces in the classroom before all this began…
Really? What is the vulnerable 60 year old professor who gets infected sacrificing?
Worst case scenario is that the professor dies (only a small %). Ignoring the fact that a student might also die, let’s say that worst case scenario for the student who gets infected is that s/he gets a severe case. While the student with the severe case doesn’t die (?), s/he might be left with a serious lung, pulmonary, or other chronic condition. As a result of that chronic condition, the student might never make it to 60. So who sacrificed more?
I feel our governor in Illinois has been very upfront and responsible. Now way you can over-promise and might as well get prepared for going online. If things change then you won’t need to fall back but at least you have a solid plan in place now.
Not a surprise from Berkeley which has a housing shortage
Looks like they are considering the possibility of having to have the dorms be lower density or have some space reserved as quarantine dorms or some such, any of which will reduce total capacity. Some of the dorms have very high density under normal circumstances (e.g. 14’*13’ triple rooms).
@lkg4answers what would that mean for freshmen at Berkeley? They are supposed to start making alternative living arrangements when they don’t even know fellow freshmen students yet?
Yes, most of the UCs that have come out with a statement have said that they are looking at doubles rather than triples. UCD and UCI also sent out statements saying that they are not able to guarantee housing next year.
@lkg4answers so what do you do if you’re a freshman? Wouldn’t it be too late to find an apartment? And you wouldn’t even know any fellow students yet.
I think that is part of the reason that the UCs are sending out statements this week - in case it is a make or break deal.
You wonder what it is going to do to to the price of rent in the surrounding communities.
In the days when current students’ parents were college students, some non-local frosh had to look for off-campus housing because there was not enough campus dorm space to offer all frosh a place in the campus dorms. Over the decades, they built new dorms, and increased the density of older ones (some doubles became triples), but enrollment also grew.
If the data that’s starting to emerge about children not being a significant vector for the virus is confirmed (see https://www.rivm.nl/en/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/children-and-covid-19) then that would be extremely good news for the prospects of resuming school and college in the fall.
Lots of colleges have off-site housing departments. At Michigan on that site there is a roommate finder. So lots of kids go this route without knowing someone before hand. My son has had 3 random roommates. One each year. I think he likes the surprise of it.