Harvard closing for rest of semester

[Anonymous]

My sympathies, Harvard parent. The PPs on here are harsh--I'd feel blindsided, too.

[Anonymous]

Not surprised. They don't close and kids or professors die and they will get sued. They have the funds and probably infrastructure to implement now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard parent -- It is a blind side for sure. Students are upset and would like to at least be at school through spring break to be with each other and to say good bye. Exams are this week so it has distracted from the concentrating on that in order to think about moving out on Sunday. Seems very short sighted.

It's a good lesson on everything doesn't always go as you hope or plan.

+1. Nothing’s perfect, fair or predictable all the time, even Harvard.

harvard parent -- agree nothing perfect or predictable. I wasn't saying it was unfair or whatever -- you could be understanding that it is a concern for students and parents whether at Harvard or any other school. No need to be snotty about it. Suggesting the move out could havve been on 21st rather than 15th is not unreasonable

Also learning to change on a dime is a good lesson. Use it as a teaching moment.

Kids can meet up and say goodbye , nobody is preventing them from doing that.

Seriously ... as far as being blind sided that is a little bit of an overreaction.

It is 4 days notice to move out....it is harder than you think.

[Anonymous]

Princeton has announced it will go to virtual classes after spring break. I find the colleges' instructions so far a bit confusing, though. Amherst apparently has said clearly that "all students are expected to have left campus" by Mar. 16, period. So, closed to all students. But Princeton's website says students are "strongly encouraged" to stay home after spring break and Harvard's website says students are "asked not to return."

My freshman DC isn't at any of those schools but is on break from a northeastern LAC right now. I hope the college is much clearer than Princeton or Harvard and if it's going to close, actually closes like Amherst, without vague "encourage you to stay home" language.

But here's the rub--not all classes can be done virtually. My DC currently has two classes that are theater courses and one involves a very large and complex play production involving dozens of students and faculty (and for one student it's a crucial senior project that can't be rescheduled or done in summer). It's for a grade and credit for DC as well. So are the individual music lessons DC takes--for a grade and credit. DC knows education majors whose courses have a huge hands-on component working with children on the campus several days each week. Not to mention biology and Chem students for whom lab time and lab grades are a big part of the courses that can't be replicated online. Some environmental studies students do field work they can't replicate elsewhere.

Parents thinking it's easy to go virtual for college classes are thinking of old-school lectures, readings, papers and tests but many classes are dependent on group work and participation.

I do think it's vital to halt this virus's spread by doing drastic things like closing colleges to students being on campus. I'm all for it. I just hope that courses that require students' physical presence and group or lab work can somehow be salvaged but I'm not sure how. Students can't necessarily spend summer at college if they need to be earning money instead of paying summer room and board etc.

Any other parents out there thinking about this issue? I know the college will figure this out if it closes but I also know there will be one crazed DC wondering about several possibly suspended credits, if that's a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard parent -- It is a blind side for sure. Students are upset and would like to at least be at school through spring break to be with each other and to say good bye. Exams are this week so it has distracted from the concentrating on that in order to think about moving out on Sunday. Seems very short sighted.

It's a good lesson on everything doesn't always go as you hope or plan.

+1. Nothing’s perfect, fair or predictable all the time, even Harvard.

harvard parent -- agree nothing perfect or predictable. I wasn't saying it was unfair or whatever -- you could be understanding that it is a concern for students and parents whether at Harvard or any other school. No need to be snotty about it. Suggesting the move out could havve been on 21st rather than 15th is not unreasonable

Also learning to change on a dime is a good lesson. Use it as a teaching moment.

Kids can meet up and say goodbye , nobody is preventing them from doing that.

Seriously ... as far as being blind sided that is a little bit of an overreaction.

It is 4 days notice to move out....it is harder than you think.

Seriously, why are people being so snotty? Not everyone has parents who can just drive up on short notice and pack them up and drive them home. When I was there, home was a flight away and my parent did not have the money or the time to help me move every year. I did it all myself. You are allowed to store some stuff there but not that much, so every year I had to figure out what could stay, what needed to come with me, and what I was going to do with the rest of it. Wouldn't want to be doing that while doing exams.

[Anonymous]

This will kill the local college communities. Many people will be out of work at restaurants etc in the local college communities.

[Anonymous]

The colleges don't care if it takes DC an extra semester to complete their degree. It will mean more money for the colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good. Prevention of spreading the virus is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

+1

Does it lead to prevention, though? Won't the students now be off to other places, but still out and about? Maybe more so because no longer tied to going to classes and their college campuses. I'm just not sure?

I suspect the college kids will be going to movies and bars in their local towns and doing pickup games in their local towns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is good. Prevention of spreading the virus is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard parent -- It is a blind side for sure. Students are upset and would like to at least be at school through spring break to be with each other and to say good bye. Exams are this week so it has distracted from the concentrating on that in order to think about moving out on Sunday. Seems very short sighted.

It's a good lesson on everything doesn't always go as you hope or plan.

+1. Nothing’s perfect, fair or predictable all the time, even Harvard.

harvard parent -- agree nothing perfect or predictable. I wasn't saying it was unfair or whatever -- you could be understanding that it is a concern for students and parents whether at Harvard or any other school. No need to be snotty about it. Suggesting the move out could havve been on 21st rather than 15th is not unreasonable

Also learning to change on a dime is a good lesson. Use it as a teaching moment.

Kids can meet up and say goodbye , nobody is preventing them from doing that.

Seriously ... as far as being blind sided that is a little bit of an overreaction.

It is 4 days notice to move out....it is harder than you think.

This. For domestic students, getting the flight home is the easy part, with rock bottom prices. Moving out is harder. I'd be looking for pack-and-store services in Boston.

It seems to me this displacement should have been temporary, more akin to another winter break (maybe a month), as an example of a time period during which residence halls are routinely closed but students eventually return, rather than an end to on-campus living for the entire semester.

And yet, most public schools across the country are open, with exceptions for those where there was some sort of potential contact with an infected person. The extent to which colleges closing in--person classes will actually help is unclear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:THis will kill the college towns and the workers in college towns who survive off of the students.

Choose words carefully. There is a difference between being out of work... and being DEAD because no one closed anything and hospitals can't cope. One is reversible, the other isn't.

And lose the economic argument, already. The economy is going to get a much bigger hit, and more people are going to lose jobs, if we can't get this under control rapidly. Rapid control means closures and quarantines for the time being.

Short term pain, long term gain. Something so many people have trouble understanding.

Fine for you to say if you are not living in the college town making your living off of the students. Most of these towns don't have many job options for low income folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good. Prevention of spreading the virus is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

+1

Does it lead to prevention, though? Won't the students now be off to other places, but still out and about? Maybe more so because no longer tied to going to classes and their college campuses. I'm just not sure?

I suspect the college kids will be going to movies and bars in their local towns and doing pickup games in their local towns.

OMG. How is it even possible to be this naive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good. Prevention of spreading the virus is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

+1

Does it lead to prevention, though? Won't the students now be off to other places, but still out and about? Maybe more so because no longer tied to going to classes and their college campuses. I'm just not sure?

I suspect the college kids will be going to movies and bars in their local towns and doing pickup games in their local towns.

This, it seems premature to take these kinds of steps unless there is an actual case of coronavirus at the college. I'd be upset if my student was sent home (kids aren't old enough) given how much tuition is. It isn't like Harvard is going to reimburse families for 1/2 semester room and board, or 1/2 semester of no college experience. Would make more sense to offer virtual offering just to kids who are high risk and don't want to remain at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The colleges don't care if it takes DC an extra semester to complete their degree. It will mean more money for the colleges.

Pretty cavalier thinking on your part. Not all students can afford even one extra semester, whether they're at Harvard or at Local U.

Colleges won't want to be in the news in the next year or so painted as "the college that couldn't or wouldn't manage to figure out how to keep students on track academically and just gouged them for more tuition,thanks to coronavirus." It's actually in colleges' interest to think way outside the box regarding courses that are hard to impossible to teach entirely online. If colleges can't manage that, sure, they might get some extra tuition bucks but they'll look like greedy a$$es. And believe me, most colleges do care how they look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good. Prevention of spreading the virus is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

+1

Does it lead to prevention, though? Won't the students now be off to other places, but still out and about? Maybe more so because no longer tied to going to classes and their college campuses. I'm just not sure?

I suspect the college kids will be going to movies and bars in their local towns and doing pickup games in their local towns.

This, it seems premature to take these kinds of steps unless there is an actual case of coronavirus at the college. I'd be upset if my student was sent home (kids aren't old enough) given how much tuition is. It isn't like Harvard is going to reimburse families for 1/2 semester room and board, or 1/2 semester of no college experience. Would make more sense to offer virtual offering just to kids who are high risk and don't want to remain at school.

It's the professors that are high risk, and the workers.... but rich schools historically don't care about workers. They got a big black eye last huge snow storm... workers had to get to Harvard to feed the poor students during the snow storm when they easily could have just served them sandwiches... or asked the kids to work the cafeteria.