College starting a week early

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Still no one here can explain why this makes sense other than keeping kids from traveling more in Nov and Dec.?

Campuses are going to be experiments where we see if putting thousands of people into close quarters will result in outbreaks. There's no precedent to study before students return because colleges shut down before the pandemic really ramped up. Other than colleges needing to show they're open and parents and students desiring it, what is the medical position on doing this? Lots of talk here saying "great idea" and worrying about summer jobs and wedding plans but not a peep about potential spread. Anyone's kid's college give you an actual explanation beyond just "we'll test everyone and cross our fingers re: dorm living"?

I agree. ND made this move and other colleges followed. There will be less outbreak if students don’t come back after Thanksgiving does nothing to stop a huge outbreak during September/October. It worries me that colleges are spending time with Congress so they won’t be held responsible. There is no unified state/country/world plan. Colleges want your money in August and they want the full tuition. They want to be held responsible for nothing. Will they be able to separate the infected from those that are exposed and waiting. It can’t be like the cruise ship and nursing home fiascos where a few people are infected and everyone else is locked up and ends up getting it. Do colleges really have all this extra space? Will they have doctors and nurses roaming the quarantined dorms 24 hours a day to make sure everyone is ok?

PP, you might be wiser to send your kid to community college in the fall.

This. No one is forcing you to send your kid to a residential college in the fall. If you don’t want to send your kid, don’t. There are plenty of others who will take his/her space.

These kids aren’t robots. What is a residential experience if they are drawing up strict health rules to protect against liability? Don’t leave your room with out a mask. No visitors in your dorm? No people in a common area more than 10 people? How will this be a social experience?

It is better than sitting in your room at your parents' home staring at a zoom screen.

I was just about to say the exact same thing. Students will adapt to these rules (and probably bend them a little) but for the most part they will come out of this with a shared experience that hopefully won't last longer than a semester.