The New Normal

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MarzNC said:
Completely agree.

Not only has there not been a pandemic of this scale for a hundred years, no coronavirus has acted in the way SARS-CoV-2 does in terms of being spread quickly by people with no symptoms, including some who never have symptoms. Or such mild symptoms that they have no clue they had COVID-19 and were probably shedding virus for a few days.

My daughter is at one of the smaller campuses of the UNC system. She is at UNC Asheville, with about 4000 students. Happily there are no headlines for UNCA due to COVID-19. Most classes are online but there are a few meeting in person at lower capacity in re-arranged classrooms.

Duke Univ. is 20 min from UNC-Chapel Hill. It's small and private. Only freshmen and sophomores are allowed to move into a dorm. All students and staff are being tested. Out of the first 3000 tested the first few days, only 4 tested positive. After almost 6000 tests, there were 11 positive tests.

In short, each college is going to be dealing with a unique situation. Hopefully some will succeed. I'll be watching all the universities in the Triangle closely. I live within 30 minutes of UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State.
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I do want to say, because someone will certainly toss in the comment to stir the pot, but it isn’t about fear mongering. I’m not saying people should shutter themselves in for fear of this virus. We aren’t. However, there is a gamble, and often times when you wager you lose. It’s like going to a casino. Play the right game, and play it smart (that would be Blackjack) and you can improve your odds of success. I’d rather not treat this like a slot machine, just pull the lever and accept the shittiest of odds.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see where schools are by October. Heck, a week ago most of the schools around us had a hybrid model in place, now they are mostly shelving that to do remote learning until October. I have low confidence my son will finish the fall semester in Plattsburgh, but I hope he does.
 
JTG said:
I do want to say, because someone will certainly toss in the comment to stir the pot, but it isn’t about fear mongering. I’m not saying people should shutter themselves in for fear of this virus. We aren’t. However, there is a gamble, and often times when you wager you lose. It’s like going to a casino. Play the right game, and play it smart (that would be Blackjack) and you can improve your odds of success. I’d rather not treat this like a slot machine, just pull the lever and accept the shittiest of odds.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see where schools are by October. Heck, a week ago most of the schools around us had a hybrid model in place, now they are mostly shelving that to do remote learning until October. I have low confidence my son will finish the fall semester in Plattsburgh, but I hope he does.
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Shutting the school down and bringing/sending the kids home seems like trojan horse.
 
JTG said:
I do want to say, because someone will certainly toss in the comment to stir the pot, but it isn’t about fear mongering. I’m not saying people should shutter themselves in for fear of this virus. We aren’t. However, there is a gamble, and often times when you wager you lose. It’s like going to a casino. Play the right game, and play it smart (that would be Blackjack) and you can improve your odds of success. I’d rather not treat this like a slot machine, just pull the lever and accept the shittiest of odds.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see where schools are by October. Heck, a week ago most of the schools around us had a hybrid model in place, now they are mostly shelving that to do remote learning until October. I have low confidence my son will finish the fall semester in Plattsburgh, but I hope he does.
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My buddy's kid goes back to Platt this week too and I go back to work at Covid High next week..At least the numbers are low in NY. Maybe that will help..
 
JTG said:
UNC seems to have made it a week before they now are shutting down.
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To be clear, it's only the UNC-Chapel Hill campus that is closing dorms and going completely online as of August 19. I was a Tar Heel for undergrad and grad school. I know the campus and the type of kids who go as freshmen pretty well. Lived in Chapel Hill 1972-92. Not particularly surprised that they didn't follow the guidelines and rules in terms of what is takes to keep from spreading COVID-19.

I won't be surprised if NC State and ECU, and other UNC campuses with over 20,000 students decide to close dorms as well. What I realized just now is that the extended move-in process increased the likelihood of a lot of community spread. Students moved in over 5-6 days by appointment. That means some students had days with nothing to do but socialize before classes started. For a lot of in-state freshmen, it's the first time they've even been on their own. Have been plenty of poor choices made in the past by undergraduates in the first month of school, long before COVID-19.

UNC Asheville handled dorm move-in very differently. Students moved in their stuff over two long weekends in July. Then they went home. Actual move-in to stay overnight happened over the weekend just before classes started on Monday, August 10. By then, all the RAs, freshmen doing orientation, and other students living off-campus who had job training for on-campus jobs were fully engaged in wearing face masks. Every student was given two cloth face masks and disposable ones are handy if someone forgets to bring theirs to campus.

My brother went to Univ. of Maryland for grad school and lives in DC. He said UMD campuses are requiring a negative COVID-19 test within 14 days of arrival on campus.

So many "experiments" happening all over the world for universities. <sigh>
 
Cornell is still on track for bringing students back. Normally, I work move-in day. It's pretty fun. This year, I think I will stay home. Ithaca College, on the other hill here in Ithaca, announced today that it will have online classes only.

There has been discussion about bringing staff members back to our office on a rotating basis. One person would be onsite for a week. I have mixed feelings. I miss the energy the students bring, for sure. OTOH, my dad is 80 and lives alone. I am pretty much the only person he sees. If I have to quarantine for two weeks after being in the office, I would only be able to see him once every three weeks, unless we go back to doing stuff outside again. Not sure how I feel about that.

WP
 
Interesting. Planning to keep the Notre Dame students on campus for a couple weeks while they do classes online. Probably more likely to teach them something about what it takes to keep from getting infected than if they all went home.
 
Adios World Cup- maybe next year
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