W&M had a thoughtful “commencement.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's too early to tell. Hiring freezes and salary cuts have been announced at most institutions. Layoffs and furloughs are just starting to be announced, and most colleges are facing unprecedented deficits.

Though extremely painful for staff, is this the sign of not handling things well?

Np - I think it’s a sign of the times and has nothing to do with one particular institution vs another. The really small schools that were already on shaky ground are going to fail but DCUM doesn’t care about those. Ohio has way too many public schools and they are starting to see cuts in programs at some schools (e.g., Akron). The best places to go for info are Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed. The Atlantic has some good articles too.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's too early to tell. Hiring freezes and salary cuts have been announced at most institutions. Layoffs and furloughs are just starting to be announced, and most colleges are facing unprecedented deficits.

Though extremely painful for staff, is this the sign of not handling things well?

I think it's too early to tell. Hiring freezes and salary cuts have been announced at most institutions. Layoffs and furloughs are just starting to be announced, and most colleges are facing unprecedented deficits.

Seems like Purdue is doing a pretty good job.

I honestly think most colleges responded in the exact same way. The outliers are probably the ones who did horribly.

Most colleges
- communicated a temporary shift to online classes followed by a shift to the remainder of the semester
-made arrangements for move out and accommodations for those who could not return to campus
-allowed a subset of international students to remain on campus
-provided pro-rated refunds for room and board
-made adjustments to grading policies and pass/fail policies
-and are working hard to try to make the fall semester have any sort of normalcy possible

UVA

Emory, Harvard

There was an earlier thread on this topic:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/869584.page

There was a sharp learning curve, but I think they will do much better in the fall.

I think some of the colleges' responses were more related to the type of college than any special indication that I'd use as a factor in deciding where to attend. I don't fault colleges for their plans not being super-smooth responding to a sudden pandemic. There were no easy answers in March. Many were in different situations with spring break.

Plans going forward depend much upon the type of school, size, location, and financial resources. There aren't easy answers for this fall either.

Do you have a student at a school that seems to be doing a good job given the circumstances? Or an alma matter that seems to be well? I heard a lot of students frustrated with getting kicked off campus quickly, canceled student jobs, glitchy online learning, massive cuts coming, etc. Just wanted to know if there have been any bright spots.