Higher Ed and Covid - Winter/Spring 2021 edition

[oped]

So I'm interested in what colleges and universities are doing for Spring. 

Son is online by choice again. Some are going back to Drexel but still not nearly everyone, and while they intended to start returning for January 11 classes, the university was asked by the city to push it back 2 weeks so everyone will be virtual until then at least, except maybe some nursing and research posts. No idea if that will get extended. Son prefers not to live by the seat of his pants so opted again for all online, and honestly he got a 3.87 for fall and is doing ok with the format. 

Daughter is set to start hybrid classes on January 25th and is talking about going back to her apartment to start sheltering on the 10th or 11th. She needs a flu shot first and a negative test that can't be logged before the 7th and then maybe another test before classes start? I'm not a fan of the early back for several reasons but understand the desire to shelter and start on time. She is NOT a fan of online and honestly did only ok last term with hybrid, utilizing RIT's Covid option to pass/fail 2 classes instead of take the grade. RIT did in person hybrid the whole semester last fall and with intense contact tracing found no spread at all associated with classes, any, which honestly was relatively minimal, was social interaction. Daughter has agreed that until weather breaks/ ICU rates drop she will only do pick ups, only drive around her flatmates, etc. 

What are the schools you work at or your kids attend doing? 

[buystoys]

My nephew's college is doing a hybrid.  He's taking all remote classes, though.  He doesn't want to drive the 1/2 hour if not necessary.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

ODS’ college pushed its Spring start date back to February 1 by eliminating Spring Break.

The current course schedule offers a mix of in-person, hybrid, online settings. I suspect it will all be online by the start of the semester as it was for the Fall.

They broke the Fall semester in half and students took 2 courses for 7 weeks in each half. Word is that everyone hated the intensity of that approach although the idea was that if things got bad and the college shut down, at least the students had a good chance of completing the first 2 courses. It appears, at this point in time, that all Spring courses will run the usual 14 week schedule.

ODS has done surprisingly very well with online learning, although I think active learning is always better than traditional passive approaches (I.e., lectures). He says that asynchronous courses mean he is teaching himself. He has dyslexia and some hearing loss, so he often needs to teach himself anyway so he has the skill set. I’ll leave open the lack of lacrosse as also contributing to his notable grade improvement, but I’ll deny I ever said it 😆. The Spring season is doubtful. Both Fall and Winter sports were cancelled and some schools in his conference have already cancelled the entire year’s athletics. ODS is comforted by the idea of going to grad school with one more season of NCAA eligibility. 😆

He has been living with his DGF’s family since March and will continue to do so unless there is a lacrosse season, at which point he’ll have to scramble and find an apartment closer to school. That shouldn’t be difficult — many students are moving home for the uncertain Spring semester and sub-lets are popping up fairly regularly on the various college Facebook pages.

So, basically, I’m waiting until February 1 to see how it will all play out.

[irishpad]

The two colleges we do campus ministry for are both in hybrid mode, dependent on what the professor decides.  Some of our students are all online, some have a few in person classes( especially lab classes), some classes have students in person while others are online at the same time.  After the first month when cases spiked, the students started being more responsible and the cases dropped.   

[minnesotapaintlady]

Spring semester will be about the same as Fall. Most classes online or hybrid with some labs being in person. DS's school starts the normal date 1/19, but they have pushed Spring break from early March to mid-April. My guess is they're allowing for the possibility of just sending them all home after break to finish up remotely the same as they did after Thanksgiving. UMN had a lot of covid cases in the Fall (over 1000), but it's smack dab in the middle of the county that has 30% of all the cases for MN too. As I predicted, DS's freshman nerd dorm had almost none. He said there was no partying in the halls or puke in the bathrooms like everyone warned him dorm life would be like, and when the university was on the news for big outdoor gatherings he was oblivious and according to his CA their floor had no curfew infractions (they had a 9pm curfew most of the semester). He said everyone pretty much stayed in their rooms all the time and he knew nobody that got covid.

Having said that, he's not real fond of online only classes and is really looking forward to having one in-person class next semester. He also didn't do as well once he got home compared to how he was doing living on campus, so if it's an option to stay the entire semester again, he's staying. 3 of his 6 classes were A's pre-Thanksgiving, but at home he lost his momentum some (and I suspect having his high powered desktop gaming computer did not help). They just finished finals last week, so we don't know all the grades yet, but it's looking like it might be straight B/B+.

[oped]

RIT doesn't have spring break at all this year.  They end early May. 

Son is technically only starting Winter Semester. He is supposed to be on co-op for Spring and Summer, but co-ops are still a little wonky. He is considering seeing if its possible to just push through academically and go back to the 4-1 format... but that will depend upon when classes are offered.

In his case Covid has really messed with the benefits of being in a co-op heavy school/program. After winter he will be 7 academic quarters into a 12 academic quarter program. Its also supposed to have 6 quarters of co/op mixed in. The two he managed last year were ok for portfolio building but effectively not great work experience wise. We will see how this session develops and then he can make a choice. 

[ken a.k.a OMK]

oped It's too bad the co-op experience is affected by COVID. My work experience was a valuable part of my education. I was lucky to work at a Navy Research Lab here in Annapolis on fantastic (some secret) projects with a Drexel physics Phd grad and an EE. Having a ham license and interest in electronics since I was about 12 helped. I was able to be part of the design team and actually build the electronic circuits. BTW Drexel didn't get me that job. The lab recruited high school seniors going to co-op schools. I started work the summer between hs and college. A good government job where they also paid part of my tuition and books. 

[giramomma]

Where I work: Classes start Jan 25, no spring break. Classes smaller than 50 will be face to face; larger online. I am still strongly discouraged to coming to campus (to work). Starting Jan 25, if I want to go to my office, even for 5 minutes, I must have paper proof  that I've had a negative Covid Test within the last 8 days. Some folks want our universities to be hubs for administering the vaccine. Due to political reasons, I think it will be a cold day in hell before that happens. Financially, we're taking a bath. Even in STEM areas, like the college of engineering.  Still expected to have the same level of work output with about 2/3rds of the folks we've had in our unit 3 years ago. We're about half of what we used to be 15 years ago...And I'm doing 3x the work I was then.

We have already been told to expect summer to be the same. I would anticipate graduation will be held online again.

To date, we've had 4800+ students test positive and 500+ faculty/staff test positive.

Where I go to school: Classes are starting two weeks later (day after MLK Day) and no spring break. I've been pretty out of touch with what's going on with campus because I'm in an online program.

Where I'm contemplating next: standardized tests will not be required again for Fall 21 admission. It will be interesting to watch if that becomes a permanent measure.  It's an online program, so the rest is meh. But there are on campus residency requirements during summers. We'll see if they switch to an online residency program.

[TheOtherMe]

Colorado has already announced commencement will be online.

Classes are starting a week late and there will be no spring break.  They will start with a hybrid method and then have to go with the County Board of Health, which put them online only for 2 weeks last semester.

[debthaven]

I really envy those of you who actually know what you're doing next semester!

Here they're talking about going back in person, at least for labs and foreign/disabled/first-year students. Per the government it will depend on the numbers in early January. But the numbers are getting worse again, and I'm sure they will continue to worsen after the holidays.

Job 2 starts on Jan 4. Job 1 starts on Jan 18. I'm guessing we'll be remote.

[TheOtherMe]

I don't think they really know.  If covid spikes in an area, the plans can quickly change.  

[trippypea]

My two kids are in the same college. As far as classes go, we already knew it was going to be a repeat of Fall, where kids would be allowed in dorms and in person for classes, but most classes were remote (both of my kids only have 1 in person lab). They pushed back start to 1/19 by eliminating Spring Break. However, they have now decided that while classes will still start on 1/19, everyone will be remote until mid-February, meaning no kids in dorms and no in person classes at all. I will not be surprised if the entire spring semester is spent remote like last spring though!

[tractor]

My son is at Michigan Tech. They are going back to in-person classes on Jan 18th.

[teen persuasion]

DS4's university is more of the same. He was fully remote, living at home, last semester, and planning the same this spring too. Classes start Feb 1, end May 15, no spring break.

We are good with him staying out of Erie county for the duration; rates were getting bad there, but are subsiding a bit now. But Finger Lakes region is heating up, oped - I think they are currently the highest positivity region. Cuomo's just playing Whack-a-mole from region to region as positivity rates spike.