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[quote=Anonymous]Waiting for our DC's college to announce plans. Early start and home at Thanksgiving is possible. A friend who is an employee at another mid-sized college said her college just announced they too are going that route. I can't get friend or anyone who can explain to me adequately why this schedule makes sense [i]from the perspective of viral spread[/i]--sure, it makes sense to the colleges financially but I don't yet see that it's medically more advisable than another option DC's college was considering--starting later, in October, and having a "winter session" for Dec-Jan with on-campus classes. At least a later start would give maybe another two months for infection rates to drop, treatments to get developed further, better understanding of the virus, more time for colleges to buy tests and PPE, etc.

I get that the idea generally with Aug-to-Nov is to prevent having students go home for Thanksgiving/fall break, then returning for exams and spreading virus on campus after travel; but having them go home Nov through Jan will still mean they return in Jan just as potentially infected. And I've heard some talk of "it's so we don't have kids at college during the height of flu season." But the peak of flu infection in the US in the past few decades has been February, not Nov-Jan (according to CDC records).

Have posted these questions before and still can't get anyone who can explain it other than as a case of getting students back to school, period, with fingers crossed and no way to know what really will happen. Yes, testing, yes, PPE and distancing etc. But classroom distancing really means little to students who still have to share dorm rooms and especially dorm bathrooms. And I'm still not hearing anyone explain why early start, early end to a fall semester is really any better than a later start -- other than the cultural "need" for students to go home for winter/Chriistmas breaks.[/quote]

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