Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Even if colleges and universities open on time this fall, they’re not going to stay open for the whole academic year. A second wave of infections is inevitable.
Frankly, I think we’re going to see a record number of schools close permanently in the coming year.
Please provide a cite for this, oh man of science. After all, apparently one side of this debate is driven by science and the other is not.
Anonymous wrote:Janet Napolitano basically announced the UCs will all be online only next year. UC San Diego already announced they will be.
Anonymous wrote:Janet Napolitano basically announced the UCs will all be online only next year. UC San Diego already announced they will be.
As for the fall plan, Napolitano described college campuses as a “complicated thing” because of large lecture halls and communal living in dormitories. Those realities make social distancing a significant challenge.
She suggested campus housing will not reopen without widespread testing, contact tracing and a place to quarantine students who test positive.
“I think it’s fair to say none of our campuses will fully reopen,” Napolitano said. “I think what some of our campuses are exploring is a mix, where there will be some material delivered in a classroom or lab setting, so-called wet labs, and other classes will continue to be online.”
Anonymous wrote:Even if colleges and universities open on time this fall, they’re not going to stay open for the whole academic year. A second wave of infections is inevitable.
Frankly, I think we’re going to see a record number of schools close permanently in the coming year.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Have these university officials checked with local hospitals to see what they predict about their capacity to handle sick patients from the college or university?
Capacity varies by location and of course over time, but for those interested, there is some capacity info by state here: https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/virginia Scroll down to the section "Hospital Resource Use." In this example, VA is currently using 2/3 of available COVID ICU beds and 15% of available COVID hospital beds.
Anonymous wrote:Have these university officials checked with local hospitals to see what they predict about their capacity to handle sick patients from the college or university?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm genuinely not sure why people are skeptical about colleges announcing they'll reopen. They'd take such a huge financial hit if they didn't it seems inevitable.
Perhaps because they will take an even bigger hit if they bring everyone back and then they have to shut again four weeks later .....
+1
Poster in bold is right. Colleges have to plan with more care and more creativity than just "Throw open the doors this fall as usual" as some PPs seem to want. There's more to the equation of reopening. It will be a far worse look for colleges if they reopen as normal, then have an outbreak on campus, or the area in which they're located has an outbreak and ends up closing nonessential businesses, issuing stay at home orders etc. and otherwise curtailing everything around a college.
A cycle of open-closed repeating itself, or a cycle of outbreaks even if small ones, could potentially be a bigger hit to students' and parents' confidence than the current complete closures. And that confidence does matter because if parents and students lose it, they will pull out of colleges and the financial situations will only worsen.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm genuinely not sure why people are skeptical about colleges announcing they'll reopen. They'd take such a huge financial hit if they didn't it seems inevitable.
Perhaps because they will take an even bigger hit if they bring everyone back and then they have to shut again four weeks later .....
And students, faculty and staff being hospitalized, and possibly dying, is not a good look. Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in families about the safety of the campus environment.
They have a greater risk of death and serious illness from suicide, alcohol, and drugs than they do from CV, but yet that doesn't stop them from opening to students year after year. Most every college will lose more students and faculty to every other cause of death than CV--some of them directly related to being a college campus. They make rational decisions based on calculated risk. That's why you are not running a university. You are not a rational person.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm genuinely not sure why people are skeptical about colleges announcing they'll reopen. They'd take such a huge financial hit if they didn't it seems inevitable.
Perhaps because they will take an even bigger hit if they bring everyone back and then they have to shut again four weeks later .....
''Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm genuinely not sure why people are skeptical about colleges announcing they'll reopen. They'd take such a huge financial hit if they didn't it seems inevitable.
Perhaps because they will take an even bigger hit if they bring everyone back and then they have to shut again four weeks later .....
And students, faculty and staff being hospitalized, and possibly dying, is not a good look. Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in families about the safety of the campus environment.
They have a greater risk of death and serious illness from suicide, alcohol, and drugs than they do from CV, but yet that doesn't stop them from opening to students year after year. Most every college will lose more students and faculty to every other cause of death than CV--some of them directly related to being a college campus. They make rational decisions based on calculated risk. That's why you are not running a university. You are not a rational person.