Are you hearing of lots of instructors calling in sick?

[Anonymous]

DS is at a large state school as a freshman. Taking gen eds. Unfortunately, every week there are class cancellations because teachers are ill. Are others hearing a ot about class cancellations due to illness of instructors? DC has 17 credits yet hardly seems to be in class.

Is there an uptick of illness on your child's campus?

[Anonymous]

Yes, COVID is rampant at DC's college and other illness is spreading as well.

[Anonymous]

Covid, colds and flu's are going around and no one is masking and students are going to classes sick. Read here how parents encourage their kids to go to class sick. Not surprising at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Covid, colds and flu's are going around and no one is masking and students are going to classes sick. Read here how parents encourage their kids to go to class sick. Not surprising at all.

+1000

DC graduated from college last year but hears from friends still there that covid is rampant, NO students are willing to test, and DC's friends' colleges have largely stopped handing out very low-cost/no-cost covid tests. No student wants to test anyway--they fear a positive test will mean they have to isolate for a week or more--which is totally not the case any more, per CDC guidance. But the kids are misinformed or not informed at all.

This is what happens when people decide a pandemic is magically "over" just because they want it to be. And the current dominant variant of covid is much more contagious than earlier variants. Generally the symptoms are not as bad but at the same time it is more highly transmissible. God help students with any tendencies to get sick or with any pre-existing conditions.

If you want instructors back on the job those instructors should mask all the time. Oh, wait. Students will say they can't understand a masked lecturer yet students themselves won't mask so the instructor can go wtihout a mask while talking.

This could be curbed and instructors could get back to work if colleges stopped the "let it rip" hands-off nonsense and said instructors can require students to mask in their classes if the profs want. Go on, flame away, DCUM. Claim that it's no big deal. But if you do that, don't come back to complain that your kid is sick or your kid's professors are out sick "too often."

[Anonymous]

The back-to-school illness wave seems to have subsided on my campus by now. Next up will be the colder weather wave, but right now the weather is nice, so there are fewer sick kids. Third will be the after-Thanksgiving wave, when they all go home and pick stuff up from family or while traveling (mask up while on the road if you don't want to be sick for finals, kids!).

Most of my faculty colleagues are OK. I've opened windows and taught outdoors, but I'm also still masking a good deal of the time. It means I come home hoarse after teaching, but I figure having me there is better for the students than not, and also my family has enough going on that I don't want to bring any illness home to them (covid or anything else).

It varies not only region by region (weather is a big factor), but also campus by campus, too.

[Anonymous]

How do you even know this, OP? On the radar of things my kid wants to talk about when we call, a sick professor is not on the list.

[Anonymous]

Professors get colds and flus just like everyone else. And in college, there are no substitute teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know this, OP? On the radar of things my kid wants to talk about when we call, a sick professor is not on the list.

NP. I can answer for my kid. We have talked about how many people have COVID, and in that conversation, she mentioned her professors being out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Professors get colds and flus just like everyone else. And in college, there are no substitute teachers.

My kid goes to a British university and says its a petri dish because everyone has returned from around the globe and has brought colds and flus with them. We went to visit recently and all came down with covid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know this, OP? On the radar of things my kid wants to talk about when we call, a sick professor is not on the list.

NP. I can answer for my kid. We have talked about how many people have COVID, and in that conversation, she mentioned her professors being out.

Seriously that’s a topic you talk about with your kid away at college 😳. The only time this has ever come up with my 2 kids is when one of them tested positive

I have no clue the illness status of my kids friends. Nor do I care. My kids haven’t mentioned professors being out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know this, OP? On the radar of things my kid wants to talk about when we call, a sick professor is not on the list.

NP. I can answer for my kid. We have talked about how many people have COVID, and in that conversation, she mentioned her professors being out.

Seriously that’s a topic you talk about with your kid away at college 😳. The only time this has ever come up with my 2 kids is when one of them tested positive

I have no clue the illness status of my kids friends. Nor do I care. My kids haven’t mentioned professors being out.

DP: Why would you expect other people's kids to talk about the same thing you talk about with your kids??? That's super weird.
It doesn't strike me as unusual for a kid to say in a phone call , 'yeah everyone I know is getting covid, I've been lucky so far. Even 2 of my professors were out sick this week" or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Professors get colds and flus just like everyone else. And in college, there are no substitute teachers.

Well, sometimes there ARE substitute teachers in colleges. What they don’t have is a nice documentary on the vanishing musk ox population to keep the kiddies occupied for a whole class session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Covid, colds and flu's are going around and no one is masking and students are going to classes sick. Read here how parents encourage their kids to go to class sick. Not surprising at all.

+1000

DC graduated from college last year but hears from friends still there that covid is rampant, NO students are willing to test, and DC's friends' colleges have largely stopped handing out very low-cost/no-cost covid tests. No student wants to test anyway--they fear a positive test will mean they have to isolate for a week or more--which is totally not the case any more, per CDC guidance. But the kids are misinformed or not informed at all.

This is what happens when people decide a pandemic is magically "over" just because they want it to be. And the current dominant variant of covid is much more contagious than earlier variants. Generally the symptoms are not as bad but at the same time it is more highly transmissible. God help students with any tendencies to get sick or with any pre-existing conditions.

If you want instructors back on the job those instructors should mask all the time. Oh, wait. Students will say they can't understand a masked lecturer yet students themselves won't mask so the instructor can go wtihout a mask while talking.

This could be curbed and instructors could get back to work if colleges stopped the "let it rip" hands-off nonsense and said instructors can require students to mask in their classes if the profs want. Go on, flame away, DCUM. Claim that it's no big deal. But if you do that, don't come back to complain that your kid is sick or your kid's professors are out sick "too often."

totally agree. there's a lot they can do without shutting down, or sending everyone into isolation and should do it! The less chaos the better. We're paying a lot for these four years - it's expensive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Covid, colds and flu's are going around and no one is masking and students are going to classes sick. Read here how parents encourage their kids to go to class sick. Not surprising at all.

+1000

DC graduated from college last year but hears from friends still there that covid is rampant, NO students are willing to test, and DC's friends' colleges have largely stopped handing out very low-cost/no-cost covid tests. No student wants to test anyway--they fear a positive test will mean they have to isolate for a week or more--which is totally not the case any more, per CDC guidance. But the kids are misinformed or not informed at all.

This is what happens when people decide a pandemic is magically "over" just because they want it to be. And the current dominant variant of covid is much more contagious than earlier variants. Generally the symptoms are not as bad but at the same time it is more highly transmissible. God help students with any tendencies to get sick or with any pre-existing conditions.

If you want instructors back on the job those instructors should mask all the time. Oh, wait. Students will say they can't understand a masked lecturer yet students themselves won't mask so the instructor can go wtihout a mask while talking.

This could be curbed and instructors could get back to work if colleges stopped the "let it rip" hands-off nonsense and said instructors can require students to mask in their classes if the profs want. Go on, flame away, DCUM. Claim that it's no big deal. But if you do that, don't come back to complain that your kid is sick or your kid's professors are out sick "too often."

+1000

If Students would mask in class, then everyone would be safer, including the profs. But that won't happen because nobody wants to admit covid is still a thing. At a minimum, students should mask when sick, no matter what it is, since we all know they won't test because they can't afford to isolate and take zeros for coursework and exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know this, OP? On the radar of things my kid wants to talk about when we call, a sick professor is not on the list.

NP. I can answer for my kid. We have talked about how many people have COVID, and in that conversation, she mentioned her professors being out.

Seriously that’s a topic you talk about with your kid away at college 😳. The only time this has ever come up with my 2 kids is when one of them tested positive

I have no clue the illness status of my kids friends. Nor do I care. My kids haven’t mentioned professors being out.

DP: Why would you expect other people's kids to talk about the same thing you talk about with your kids??? That's super weird.
It doesn't strike me as unusual for a kid to say in a phone call , 'yeah everyone I know is getting covid, I've been lucky so far. Even 2 of my professors were out sick this week" or whatever.

+1000
Or to ask your kid how they have been feeling/did they get any "sept return to college illness" like many kids get even pre-covid? Especially if your parent FB pages are filled with "my kid is sick/my kid has covid how do they see a doctor/where is the nearest urgent care/where is the nearest pharmacy to pick up a prescription". It's obvious when covid or other illnesses are running rampant and many parents do check in on their own kids...it's called caring.