Will Shame Make Students Stop Socializing?
They signed pledges to keep the community safe. They received emails about social distancing and wearing masks. But some college students are still doing what college students tend to do: socialize and party. In some cases, the repercussions have been dramatic. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill moved its fall semester online after a rash of positive COVID-19 cases and national scrutiny.
Ithaca College Shifts to Remote Semester as Cornell Sticks to In-Person Fall
Ithaca College will hold all online classes this fall, reversing its plan to welcome students back to campus by October. Cornell’s neighbor said the severity of the pandemic and the hampered on-campus student experience that public health measures would have created pushed the college to flip its fall plans, President Shirley M. Collado said in an email Tuesday morning. Even as cases remain low in New York State, Collado wrote that the reality of COVID-19 is “deeply concerning.” The virus has infected more than 5.4 million people and killed over 170,000 in the United States, and cases remain high in most of the country.
Michigan State, Notre Dame Back Off From Fall Reopening Plans
Two more major research universities are walking back plans to resume in-person undergraduate instruction, continuing a rocky rollout for fall reopening efforts across higher education. The University of Notre Dame announced Tuesday afternoon it was suspending in-person classes for almost 12,000 students, moving undergraduate classes to remote instruction for two weeks while keeping students on campus and giving leaders a chance to reassess plans and a rising coronavirus infection rate. The announcement came at virtually the same time Michigan State University asked undergraduates who had planned to live in residence halls to stay home and announced that it will transition classes planned for in-person instruction to remote formats.
Two more universities pull back from in-person teaching after coronavirus outbreaks
Major American universities are scrapping or delaying plans for in-person classes during the upcoming fall semester after outbreaks on campus alarmed administrators, with Notre Dame and Michigan State walking back their reopening plans Tuesday, one day after the University of North Carolina did the same.
Penn State faculty group’s COVID-19 simulation projects 2,500 student cases and 2 deaths
A Penn State group has renewed calls for increased COVID-19 testing after a simulation projected, conservatively, that about 2,500 University Park students could be infected by the coronavirus in the fall. The Coalition for a Just University (CJU/PSU), comprised mainly of concerned faculty, released the results over the weekend after nearly two months of work. The scenarios were primarily based on published models by Yale-Harvard scientists that helped develop testing plans for Boston-area universities.
Startups Tap a New Talent Pool: Pandemic-Weary College Students
With campuses locked down, internships have extended into the academic year.
To many college students, the prospect of a year of school during a pandemic—with virtual classes, restricted movements and no parties—is a huge bummer. Some Silicon Valley startups, hungry for young talent, see it as an opportunity.
Colorado College student tests positive for COVID-19, Loomis Hall under quarantine
In an Aug. 16 emailed letter to students, Colorado College officials announced that an incoming student tested positive on the previous day, Aug. 15, for COVID-19 and that further investigation found that students failed to social distance, leading to a 14-day quarantine of all 155 students housed at Loomis Hall.
“Students, you MUST continue to follow enhanced social- distancing protocols as you await test results, and follow regular risk-mitigation protocols at all times after that. Our efforts will work only if everyone on campus follows these protocols; it’s up to each of us,” Rochelle Dickey, acting dean of students and vice president for student life, and Brian Young, vice president and chair of the prevention work team, said in the message.
Carolina to switch to remote instruction, reduce residential density
The University is shifting all undergraduate instruction to remote learning on Aug. 19. Courses in the graduate, professional and health affairs schools will continue to be taught as they are or as directed by the schools.