Anonymous wrote:

This is a mistake.
By the end of the month, cases will be trending downward at the open colleges and most will be in good shape by November
No matter what, colleges will have an uptick of cases when they open, it's inevitable.

Absolutely agree. Why is no one talking about this? Once a school gets this number of cases, the best thing to do is leave everyone there and let it run its course. In a month, they'll have herd immunity, no one will die or even get that sick, and they'll be back in class. Until then, just do online learning. Send kids with immune deficiency and who are obese home. By sending everyone home now, you're re-seeding the virus back in small communities. This is literally the worst thing you could do. We'll now have another "wave" in NOVA due to returning JMU kids, which actually *will* kill people.

Sigh. Herd immunity? Do you even know what it means?. Who knows who has "immune deficiency", whatever that is? Who is this poster who KNOWS the numbers will go down by the end of the month?

Also, just so you know, kids who went to campus have been leaving in large numbers all over the country. Schools who move students into quarantine can't force them to stay. At my kid's large state u, being quarantined is being compared to being in prison and many of those kids are electing to go home. It is true, they aren't all positive for the virus but they are more likely to be and they are on the road, on planes, on buses etc.

The students who went need to stay where they are. Parents knew the risks and they decided to go anyhow. Don't come back and spread coronavirus around to everyone else.

This is a mistake.
By the end of the month, cases will be trending downward at the open colleges and most will be in good shape by November
No matter what, colleges will have an uptick of cases when they open, it's inevitable.

Absolutely agree. Why is no one talking about this? Once a school gets this number of cases, the best thing to do is leave everyone there and let it run its course. In a month, they'll have herd immunity, no one will die or even get that sick, and they'll be back in class. Until then, just do online learning. Send kids with immune deficiency and who are obese home. By sending everyone home now, you're re-seeding the virus back in small communities. This is literally the worst thing you could do. We'll now have another "wave" in NOVA due to returning JMU kids, which actually *will* kill people.

Anonymous wrote:Get real, people.
The only reason any college even attempted to open is to keep their freshmen admits from deferring or choosing a different school that promised to open.
They all got what they wanted. Their students arrived, and now they can send them home, knowing they’ll continue online because it’s too late to change their minds.

Bull. Lots of big state schools are pushed by governing boards and politics within the state. UNC is one example. I have a kid at a large midwestern university and the school was pushed to open by politicians. In every bit of communication this university sent regarding this year and all the documentation and extra forms the students had to sign to attend this semester, it was very clear the school administration did not want to open. It is clear. They were forced to open by the state. I have another kid who attends a SLAC which went 100% dl because the county board of health set extremely rigid limits for the threshold for which they would shut the school down. The administration there knew it would be impossible to keep the school open.

The big midwestern university is taking strong actions and quarantining most of the greek houses and many floors in dorms and of course, the parents who sent their kids are outraged. Parents and students were willfully ignorant in sending their kids back to school. The school is aggressively testing and quarantining large numbers of students. Many students have been suspended. Larger universities are seeing explosive growth of the virus. Much like smaller JMU, my kid's university will shut down soon because their resources for quarantine are being overwhelmed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After consultation with the Virginia Department of Health, James Madison University will transition to primarily online learning, with some hybrid instruction for accreditation and licensure requirements, graduate research, and specialized upper-class courses requiring equipment and space, through the month of September. Courses currently offered online will continue to be online without any break in instruction. Classes will take place as scheduled for the remainder of this week unless students are otherwise notified by their faculty. In-person classes will transition online no later than this coming Monday, Sept. 7. Additionally, in an effort to reduce the number of people on campus, residents will be asked to return home by Sept. 7 unless they seek an exemption to stay.

This is a mistake.
By the end of the month, cases will be trending downward at the open colleges and most will be in good shape by November
No matter what, colleges will have an uptick of cases when they open, it's inevitable.

I'm sure we all hope this is true, but really? As weather gets cooler and everyone has to be indoors? Think it's wishful thinking.

Does JMU really think they’re going to bring the students back in October? How is that supposed to work?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Virginia Tech, GMU, William and Mary, VCU, UVA... all of these schools set up testing as a requirement. They all seems to be doing okay.

I was going to have my sophomore JMU student get tested before returning, and it looked like he need to have symptoms, underlying conditions or a known exposure in order to even qualify for a test, so I'll admit that we skipped it. Maybe I misunderstood how widely available testing is in Northern VA. I know that students at some schools received tests in the mail to self-administer - did any VA schools do that?

He's off campus and plans to stay. If I had a freshman at JMU or just about any campus this year, I don't think I would have moved them in and probably would have pushed a deferral.

For the record, he actually applied to the school - excellent faculty in his major (there were no other reasonable options for the major in VA and he wants to save $$$ for grad school).

This is what VCU did.

VCU, GMU and W&M all did pre-testing via self-administration (though there's some worry about that because it is self-administered and some critique that it's not appropriate). Looking at these school's stats they all have really low positives. I'm concerned the tests weren't sensitive enough but I'm not an expert.

UVA students received test kits in the mail prior to returning to grounds.

This is a mistake.
By the end of the month, cases will be trending downward at the open colleges and most will be in good shape by November
No matter what, colleges will have an uptick of cases when they open, it's inevitable.

+100

Anonymous wrote:After consultation with the Virginia Department of Health, James Madison University will transition to primarily online learning, with some hybrid instruction for accreditation and licensure requirements, graduate research, and specialized upper-class courses requiring equipment and space, through the month of September. Courses currently offered online will continue to be online without any break in instruction. Classes will take place as scheduled for the remainder of this week unless students are otherwise notified by their faculty. In-person classes will transition online no later than this coming Monday, Sept. 7. Additionally, in an effort to reduce the number of people on campus, residents will be asked to return home by Sept. 7 unless they seek an exemption to stay.

This is a mistake.
By the end of the month, cases will be trending downward at the open colleges and most will be in good shape by November
No matter what, colleges will have an uptick of cases when they open, it's inevitable.

Anonymous wrote:

Virginia Tech, GMU, William and Mary, VCU, UVA... all of these schools set up testing as a requirement. They all seems to be doing okay.

I was going to have my sophomore JMU student get tested before returning, and it looked like he need to have symptoms, underlying conditions or a known exposure in order to even qualify for a test, so I'll admit that we skipped it. Maybe I misunderstood how widely available testing is in Northern VA. I know that students at some schools received tests in the mail to self-administer - did any VA schools do that?

He's off campus and plans to stay. If I had a freshman at JMU or just about any campus this year, I don't think I would have moved them in and probably would have pushed a deferral.

For the record, he actually applied to the school - excellent faculty in his major (there were no other reasonable options for the major in VA and he wants to save $$$ for grad school).

This is what VCU did.

Virginia Tech, GMU, William and Mary, VCU, UVA... all of these schools set up testing as a requirement. They all seems to be doing okay.

I was going to have my sophomore JMU student get tested before returning, and it looked like he need to have symptoms, underlying conditions or a known exposure in order to even qualify for a test, so I'll admit that we skipped it. Maybe I misunderstood how widely available testing is in Northern VA. I know that students at some schools received tests in the mail to self-administer - did any VA schools do that?

He's off campus and plans to stay. If I had a freshman at JMU or just about any campus this year, I don't think I would have moved them in and probably would have pushed a deferral.

For the record, he actually applied to the school - excellent faculty in his major (there were no other reasonable options for the major in VA and he wants to save $$$ for grad school).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we don’t know what the f*ck we’re doing.

Universities are responding to incentives. The federal government has done nothing to help universities. Actually, our government has taken action to harm universities, because Republicans hate universities because scientists at universities screw up oil and gas CEO's ability to cash in while destroying the planet.

So university leadership has ZERO options. They have to try to bring kids back. They have to try to get local gov't to tell the students to leave. Then they can act like their hands were forced and they have legal leverage to break contracts.

What should be happening: Fed gov't should be setting clear standards and have a nationwide plan, with financial support for all companies and for all universities, not just for companies that are cronies of the president and his party.

But we don't have that. Because Republicans want to enrich themselves and harm universities and they don't care who gets harmed or if our economy is destroyed and American kids are at a disadvantage because of decreased education. The GOP just. doesn't. care. about you. Universities are trying their best.

Wow, are you unhinges. Trust a liberal to try blaming everyone else for something that’s happening all over the country.

Observing that Trump completely mucked up a national response is not being liberal. It is being realistic.