Problems With Closing Colleges For Coronavirus

[seashoreCM]

The colleges need to give the students more time to move out.

Some students may have a Disney trip planned for spring break and do not have time to break down their rooms, pack up, and find a place to store their things first.

Not a good idea to have almost everyone bring their U-Hauls and family station wagons on the same day or two and park all over the lawns and jostle each other in the dorm corridors carrying things.

Some students do not have the technology (such as high speed internet) to finish their courses at home via webinar and Youtube.

Are you a student affected or a parent with a child affected? Quick! Apply for an extension.

 

[RamblingMad]

Why wouldn’t they just leave their stuff in the dorms and pick it up later?

 

[okeydokey]

I work at a University. Students are being told to take all they need with them from break just in case. Nobody needs to completely move out of dorms, just be prepared to go to online learning for a few weeks if need be.

 

[Hikergirl]

Why wouldn’t they just leave their stuff in the dorms and pick it up later?

Because the school isn't allowing that in some cases, they are giving the students a date they need to be out by.

Another issue with changing to all online classes is there are many students who are doing research, or in other programs where they need access to the school's lab facilities. If their program requires those labs, and research what does that mean for them, will they have to stay an extra semester to do it?

 

[pryncess527]

I worry about the students with no where to go. From my experience working in colleges holiday breaks always present a challenge to a handful of students who are homeless when the dorms close. Planning for a known holiday break is hard enough . . .
I still think closing is the right call more than likely, but I hope these students aren’t forgotten

 

[pezgirlroy]

Why wouldn’t they just leave their stuff in the dorms and pick it up later?

Because in many cases they are being told to leave for the year and not come back. So they cannot just pick it up later.

 

[RamblingMad]

Because in many cases they are being told to leave for the year and not come back. So they cannot just pick it up later.

What schools? It’s not like anyone is going to occupy that dorm.

 

[luvsJack]

We are just a small community college but one of our VPs has already sent out an email for "just in case".

The instructors have been told to be ready to jump to online classes at any point in the semester. And she addressed the fact that not all students will have internet. As she said, most do and the ones that don't should be able to access from somewhere. If it is suggested that we closed, it just it what it is.

Our dorm students will have to move out but the time given will depend on the suggestion or order made to our college to close.

 

[AlohaNow]

We had an interesting conversation at dinner last night about how so many colleges going to an online format to finish out this semester may finally show how very outmoded the typical college teaching methods are. But we concluded that nothing would change.

My own alma mater in NYC, with spring break slated for next week, told students to leave campus now. Quite a little problem for the international students!

 

[Mango7100]

I believe Harvard said everyone has to be completely out by the weekend...not just stay home for 2 weeks because they aren’t resuming inperson classes

 

[Searc]

The colleges need to give the students more time to move out.

Some students may have a Disney trip planned for spring break and do not have time to break down their rooms, pack up, and find a place to store their things first.

Not a good idea to have almost everyone bring their U-Hauls and family station wagons on the same day or two and park all over the lawns and jostle each other in the dorm corridors carrying things.

Some students do not have the technology (such as high speed internet) to finish their courses at home via webinar and Youtube.

Are you a student affected or a parent with a child affected? Quick! Apply for an extension.

LOL Everyone moving in/out happens twice a year on the same day, every year. No problems with that.

What we are wondering about as parents is the kids who have nowhere to go, especially international students from heavily affected countries.

 

[soccerdad72]

My son's school hasn't announced anything yet, but our biggest question (aside from how an engineering tools lab can go online) is whether or not he brought home everything he needs, since when he left to go home for spring break last Friday, he assumed (like everyone else) that he'd be returning a week later. I know he had some homework and projects due during break, so he brought some of his books and his laptop, but I don't know if he took everything.

Some campuses are not closing, some are, so every situation has been unique so far.

 

[Hikergirl]

LOL Everyone moving in/out happens twice a year on the same day, every year. No problems with that.

What we are wondering about as parents is the kids who have nowhere to go, especially international students from heavily affected countries.

Dd's university lets the international kids stay over breaks and the summer so I imagine if they close the campus it would be the same for them for this.
I guess for kids who live domestically they assume that they would go home, or wherever they go during breaks and during the summer.

 

[lovesmurfs]

The problem with moving to all online classes is for those pursing music or theater arts degrees. While lessons could be given over Facetime/Skype, ensembles cannot rehearse, nor can they prepare for shows or musicals.

 

[luvsJack]

The problem with moving to all online classes is for those pursing music or theater arts degrees. While lessons could be given over Facetime/Skype, ensembles cannot rehearse, nor can they prepare for shows or musicals.

If the school is closed the remainder of the semester, would there be any shows or musicals?

 

[okeydokey]

Universities will do the best they can for the largest amount of students possible. Of course there will be some negative repercussions for some students and some classes, but no response is going to be perfect. We need to reduce the spread as much as we can with protective measures so we don’t end up overwhelming the capacity of our health care system.

 

[barkley]

i think for the state of washington the way it's being handled is very short sighted and will create a greater spread of the virus. traditionally it seems half of our kids who grow up on the east side of the state attend college on the west side while our eastern colleges get a good chunk from the central and west. so now they are closing down early/going to on-line but telling students to head home so we will have students crossing the state exposing others, then crossing back and exposing others...i suspect that come april we will see a big surge in cases.

before all these decisions came down by the colleges allot of students local to us (eastern side) were planning on staying put here and avoiding the higher risk areas b/c the dorms are always open that one week of spring break. now with a weeks long break and some dorms shutting down they have no choice but to risk going home

 

[Searc]

The problem with moving to all online classes is for those pursing music or theater arts degrees. While lessons could be given over Facetime/Skype, ensembles cannot rehearse, nor can they prepare for shows or musicals.

There won't be any shows or musicals. If classes need to be cancelled because they aren't conducive to being online, current grades will be the final grade and the class will be over at my son's university. I'm quite impressed with how they've handled it and how transparent they are being with information on the school site.

 

[PhDisney]

LOL Everyone moving in/out happens twice a year on the same day, every year. No problems with that.

What we are wondering about as parents is the kids who have nowhere to go, especially international students from heavily affected countries.

I know several universities are allowing students to stay, but asking those who can leave to go home. (Even just half the students leaving campus would be a highly effective form of social distancing and could massively reduce spread. The places that shut down and just asked everyone to leave... that's not so great!

I will say, as someone who teaches at a university, the transition from on-the-ground to online is a TON of work, and suddenly having everyone online will likely overload the various platforms we use for teaching. Be patient with any instructors, admin, etc. It's easy to say "just teach online!" but in reality online teaching is hard, the platforms aren't ready for this many people, and there's been a ton of work behind the scenes to keep education going. Not every class can be taught online - my students get the most out of class discussion and it's really hard to mimic that conversation online - large group video chats are a poor substitute, as are forum posts. We'll work with what we've got but it's not as easy as people think to teach online!

 

[Hikergirl]

It is pointless to move to online only classes if you aren't closing residence halls too.
Do they really believe that the only place this virus will spread among college kids is in the classroom?
The only people that are protected in that case is the faculty, students are still at the same risk remaining on campus and in dorms as they are sitting in classrooms and lecture halls.