Problems With Closing Colleges For Coronavirus

[okeydokey]

Have these colleges actually spoken with health experts and the CDC on this?? It makes no sense.. So basically you are taking a closed community ( campuses are in the most cases tight knit communities as compared to let's say NYC), filled with young, 99% healthy people whose main role in this pandemic is mainly carrier. They show often no systems and if they do usually a slight fever and a dry cough.

Now let's release them to the public, send them home where it could well be their parents are in that critical age…. or grandparents near by…

Actually locking a campus down is the perfect situation to keep a community together to stop the spreading.. Off campus students, teachers dial in... on campus/ food workers with extra precautions for food stay

Every University has an Emergency Maangement Department. These schools have been meeting daily for weeks to formulate plans.

My University is going online until early April, and will reassess as needed. Things will evolve as needed. Campus is open, dorms will remain open if students want to stay, but they cannot go away and then come back. They need to pick staying or going and stick with it.

 

[skyblue17]

Have these colleges actually spoken with health experts and the CDC on this?? It makes no sense.. So basically you are taking a closed community ( campuses are in the most cases tight knit communities as compared to let's say NYC), filled with young, 99% healthy people whose main role in this pandemic is mainly carrier. They show often no systems and if they do usually a slight fever and a dry cough.

Now let's release them to the public, send them home where it could well be their parents are in that critical age…. or grandparents near by…

Actually locking a campus down is the perfect situation to keep a community together to stop the spreading.. <keep dorm kids there, they study, go to classes. drink a bit to kill time..

Off campus students, teachers dial in.. in most cases there are enough TAs on site for face to face.

Genuinely curious. If you had a child of college age and you were told they were locking down your child's campus for an indefinite amount of time, and your child would not be allowed to leave, and you would not be allowed in, and MAYBE you could collect your child but to do so, it would have to happen away from the campus grounds and if you did, they would not be allowed back, would that be okay with you?

Not to mention that some campuses are huge! A lot of my friends went to urban colleges where the campus is part of the city community. NYU, for example, can't lockdown a campus. Nor can Yale, or any college interwoven into the city it's a part of.

 

[Hikergirl]

Every SUNY school will probably have their own procedure since the campuses differ. Guess the Gov just gave parents a heads up so they have an idea what's coming.

I just called, I didn't want too because I'm pretty sure they'll be getting slammed with questions.
The young woman I spoke to was very nice but doesn't know much more than I do at this point.
I know we will find out soon enough, it's just frustrating when the info isn't clear or even the same.
My ds is in a program that requires lab instruction, his school is actually mostly students in programs that are trade based so they have more hands-on labs than classroom instruction. I wish they had put a plan in place before this announcement instead of scrambling to make one after KWIM.
The irony is that if they close the dorms, a majority of the students are from the hardest hit areas in the state- Westchester and NYC. They will be sent closer to cases of COVID than where they are now.
I just hope this wasn't the wrong decision for the students , for academic reasons and for health reasons.

 

[mousefan73]

Genuinely curious. If you had a child of college age and you were told they were locking down your child's campus for an indefinite amount of time, and your child would not be allowed to leave, and you would not be allowed in, and MAYBE you could collect your child but to do so, it would have to happen away from the campus grounds and if you did, they would not be allowed back, would that be okay with you?

Not to mention that some campuses are huge! A lot of my friends went to urban colleges where the campus is part of the city community. NYU, for example, can't lockdown a campus. Nor can Yale, or any college interwoven into the city it's a part of.

I think each situation is unique. One needs to look at the pros/cons.. If I lived in a hot spot and my kid was on-site at some downstate, small town state school. i would probably prefer to have them lock down in a safer environment. On the otherside if my kid went to NYU and I lived in Montana I would want them home. If I were an older parent with health issues, I might think differently.

 

[KayaWildfire]

Have these colleges actually spoken with health experts and the CDC on this?? It makes no sense.. So basically you are taking a closed community ( campuses are in the most cases tight knit communities as compared to let's say NYC), filled with young, 99% healthy people whose main role in this pandemic is mainly carrier. They show often no systems and if they do usually a slight fever and a dry cough.

Now let's release them to the public, send them home where it could well be their parents are in that critical age…. or grandparents near by…

Actually locking a campus down is the perfect situation to keep a community together to stop the spreading.. <keep dorm kids there, they study, go to classes. drink a bit to kill time..

Off campus students, teachers dial in.. in most cases there are enough TAs on site for face to face.

No way would this work at the majority of large universities. UW-Madison stopped face to face learning but will not close the campus so dorm students can stay. However, the majority of students other than freshman live in off campus housing including grad students, ta's, and professors. Not to mention the campus is quite interwoven into the city.

 

[Searc]

I can see this happening. UW closed it's campus, WSU just announced an extended spring break with classes returning online for the time being. I don't know about Central, Western, Eastern, or Gonzaga, but I can see the criss-crossing of students exposing each other to possible illness.

Seeing UW keeps confusing me because that's the University of Wisconsin, not Washington. LOL

 

[RangerPooh]

Have these colleges actually spoken with health experts and the CDC on this?? It makes no sense.. So basically you are taking a closed community ( campuses are in the most cases tight knit communities as compared to let's say NYC), filled with young, 99% healthy people whose main role in this pandemic is mainly carrier. They show often no systems and if they do usually a slight fever and a dry cough.

Now let's release them to the public, send them home where it could well be their parents are in that critical age…. or grandparents near by…

Actually locking a campus down is the perfect situation to keep a community together to stop the spreading.. <keep dorm kids there, they study, go to classes. drink a bit to kill time..

Off campus students, teachers dial in.. in most cases there are enough TAs on site for face to face.

This might work at some campuses, but not all. Some are more commuter based with fewer on campus housing options, so those students would already be exposing people to germs coming and going. The university that I work for is not a traditional campus (but is the states flagship medical campus) as it's focus is health professions (medicine, dental, nursing, pharmacy, etc) and is housed near the downtown portion of our city. There's no on campus housing options, and everyone commutes in. The campus buildings are even dispersed among a few city blocks between multiple hospitals and businesses.

I previously worked at a traditional university where the vast majority of students lived on campus or within 5 minutes of it. The roads on/off campus didn't have gates. People were free to leave. So unless you have police barricades people are going to interact with the public. Besides, once germs hit a dorm it spreads through many of the residents. Students interact in dorm common areas as well as in shared restroom facilities on each floor. Then there's the interactions that they have as they walk across campus to dining facilities.

 

[1GoldenSun]

My university hasn't made any plans to close but has told instructors to be prepared to go online if need be and has provided us with resources for doing so.

I've told my students to stay home if they're sick, and I've started recording and posting all my lectures so they can be viewed at the students' convenience. I've also opened an online discussion forum for questions. I'm not doing this so much out of fear that a student with the virus is going to come to class and infect everyone, but more so for peace of mind-- not just for the students but for their parents who are no doubt concerned. Luckily my subject matter is one that translates fairly well to an online forum--we miss out on the benefits of group discussions and activities but the loss is marginal.

Almost all of my students are juniors or seniors and no longer live in dorms. I sympathize with those living in dorms-- especially those far from home-- because the uncertainty has got to be unnerving.

 

[skyblue17]

I think each situation is unique. One needs to look at the pros/cons.. If I lived in a hot spot and my kid was on-site at some downstate, small town state school. i would probably prefer to have them lock down in a safer environment. On the otherside if my kid went to NYU and I lived in Montana I would want them home. If I were an older parent with health issues, I might think differently.

But even each parent/child situation varies! It might be a safer environment for some, but not for all. And why is your kid coming home from NYC safer than staying there, with the logic you are using?

 

[okeydokey]

This is the perfect time for many schools to do this. Students are going all over for break, many of them next week. Turning to online learning for two weeks after makes sense.

 

[HeatherC]

My daughter has a bunch of schools around hers that are going to online, but nothing so far for hers. Her school does have a lot of culinary students and I wonder how that would work along with science majors who do most of their work in labs and not lecture halls or classrooms.

The next month or so will be interesting for sure.

 

[HeatherC]

My university hasn't made any plans to close but has told instructors to be prepared to go online if need be and has provided us with resources for doing so.

I've told my students to stay home if they're sick, and I've started recording and posting all my lectures so they can be viewed at the students' convenience. I've also opened an online discussion forum for questions. I'm not doing this so much out of fear that a student with the virus is going to come to class and infect everyone, but more so for peace of mind-- not just for the students but for their parents who are no doubt concerned. Luckily my subject matter is one that translates fairly well to an online forum--we miss out on the benefits of group discussions and activities but the loss is marginal.

Almost all of my students are juniors or seniors and no longer live in dorms. I sympathize with those living in dorms-- especially those far from home-- because the uncertainty has got to be unnerving.

I wish all professors were as sensible as you! I am sure your students and their parents appreciate it!

 

[Coffee66]

My daughter has a bunch of schools around hers that are going to online, but nothing so far for hers. Her school does have a lot of culinary students and I wonder how that would work along with science majors who do most of their work in labs and not lecture halls or classrooms.

The next month or so will be interesting for sure.

New york SUNY and CUNY colleges as of March 19th will close for the semester and go to distance learning.

 

[HeatherC]

sorry duplicate post

 

[bethbuchall]

One problems is that if the schools go to online learning and it works to stop the spread, everyone will say that it wasn't needed/was fake news/was reactionary. If they don't go to online learning and there is a spread of disease in their community, then they'll be called out for not taking the risks seriously and endangering students/families. They are in a tough position.

I certainly wish it weren't happening and that they could finish the semester out traditionally. I don't know what the right answer is, though, and I'm not sure we ever will really know.

With students leaving campuses in unaffected areas and heading to areas with cases of COVID-19, there is definitely a potential for spread if they come back to campus. College students wouldn't be good with complete self-quarantine.

 

[mjkacmom]

I wish all professors were as sensible as you! I am sure your students and their parents appreciate it!

Actually some parents are mad that professors are posting videos, they would prefer live teaching with the immediate ability to ask questions. My DH is an adjunct at a large university that closes tomorrow, he does many presentations to a lot of people from our home for his real job, he’ll have students log into the live class.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Without any testing this seems like a bad idea.
Young people can seem to carry disease and not know. And now you are sending thousands all over the country.
It seems like they should have done some testing to make sure it wasn't already in schools before they did this. Close the High schools and grade schools to not have claasses colleges too, but sending them home seems really dopey.

 

[1GoldenSun]

Actually some parents are mad that professors are posting videos, they would prefer live teaching with the immediate ability to ask questions. My DH is an adjunct at a large university that closes tomorrow, he does many presentations to a lot of people from our home for his real job, he’ll have students log into the live class.

I don't currently have the capability to offer a real-time lecture remotely. Recorded lectures are the best I can do. Live is definitely the best option, though. I've been happy to see that class attendance hasn't declined drastically, so it doesn't look like many students are taking advantage of my new policy.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Without any testing this seems like a bad idea.
Young people can seem to carry disease and not know. And now you are sending thousands all over the country.
It seems like they should have done some testing to make sure it wasn't already in schools before they did this. Close the High schools and grade schools to not have claasses colleges too, but sending them home seems really dopey.

Most are either on spring break or would be soon, so most are traveling home or elsewhere anyway

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Spring break in NY about April 11
Not saying don't do - saying without spot testing you could have just created a bigger knightmare. Why not just suspend classes?