Harvard Considering Complete Fall Semester Shutdown?
- Thread starter NJPSU
- Start date
It was in the media yesterday that Boston U and others are considering this as well. Wondering what PSU is planning... The universities cannot charge full tuition if that is the case. Might lead to significant number of students dropping out or at least taking a semester off...
I think it’s ok to plan for it but 4 months out with the ever changing dynamics of this situation is way too far out to make that call IMO. Germany is sending kids back to school May 4.
Will they march through Poland to get there?
kind of a dumb tweet, without more clarification in it.
I'm almost certain that the leadership of most/all universities are having discussions at their highest levels where they are game planning different scenarios for the fall, including not having in-class classes, or opening campuses. To not do so would be idiotic.
That they are considering it isn't newsworthy.
I'm almost certain that the leadership of most/all universities are having discussions at their highest levels where they are game planning different scenarios for the fall, including not having in-class classes, or opening campuses. To not do so would be idiotic.
That they are considering it isn't newsworthy.
Yea, UW-Madison is closed down for the Spring and Summer.....and the official position for the Fall is that we are planning to be on campus in a somewhat traditional educational format. In the meantime, as a faculty member, I am being advised (and given technical support already) to have the Fall classes set to go online. You are correct, it would be foolish to not be prepared to do so. I think this is called the worst case scenario.....and the worst case scenario is not too low of a probability.
As others have said, you can start school on (pick a date) Sept 1....and if by Sept 10 you have a few Covid19 cases on campus, the entire place gets shut down all over again. If nothing else, until we as a society can agree to live with "an acceptable amount", universities are not going to accept the risk of Johnny or Susie coming down with that virus because they were brought back to school too early. See ya on campus (we will function online until then) in Sept of 2021......probably for the start of college football after a 1 year shut down......because if they go through the costs and risks of keeping football going in the Fall of 2020, they are going to have to match it (risks and costs) with the same amount of female athletes....which will be spread over many more sports......in effect, even more unmanageable in terms of costs and risks.....ain't going to happen.
It’s not newsworthy if true? The leading university in the nation may shut down for a semester and that is not worth reporting?
Don’t you think that a Harvard shutdown would set an example that every university president would have to take into consideration?
No school/no sports/no football season.
I agree. If the campus is not open for educational purposes there will be no sports.
There is not much time to make these decisions about what to do. They can’t wait until a couple months before classes start without risking financial ruin.
So many families are impacted financially. So many are jobless, others have to figure out how to pay tuition, come up with living expenses, finalize student loans, arrange for housing, all with no clear read on whether their job will be safe.
My daughter has already selected classes for the Fall. Right now she should be finding housing with a lease to begin in July, but she has been home for a month. As a responsible kid she understands that she can’t go commit to a lease without the certainty of school being held. She and her friends are assuming that it is probably best to take the term off and try to find work in the meantime.
I think you're missing the point. There have been a number of discussions, in multiple threads on this board, about no sports in the fall, no classes in the fall, etc. Nobody has come out and said it as a fact, as that's too far out in a pretty fluid situation. However, it's been actively discussed on this board, so pretty much anyone out there can safely conclude that it's being discussed by the administrators of every non-online university.
The tweet in question, is, as I indicated in my earlier post, not newsworthy. It's nothing more than "somebody" (not a Harvard official) reporting that the administrators at Harvard are doing what everyone knows they should at least be discussing.
Every university is unique. Harvard has an endowment the will enable it to do whatever it wants to do, without going out of business. Most other universities do not have the same degree of flexibility, or economic backing, that Harvard does. In that context, I don't think that what Harvard does will set an example, or serve as a leader, for other universities.
You're also not even factoring in location, or testing. If Boston is a hotbed of Covid-19 in August, it will be very hard, and perhaps illegal per whatever emergency rules that the Massachusetts governor implements, for Harvard to open. Yet that may not be the case in some other state.
Testing will be a key aspect of the equation. If tests are plentiful, and a college can test all students (as well as professors, and support staff) as they attempt to move in, and identify all symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, then both the administrators and the parents of the students, as well as the local community/region, will be satisfied that the university can open. If that's not the case, there is going to be a lot of hesitation from both sides of the equation to open a campus, as social distancing is impossible in dorms and classrooms, and the college environment is a petri dish for one infected individual to create a huge problem.
These university presidents do not have the luxury to wait “four months” to gather all the information and data and then make a decision.
I would be surprised if most schools don’t have a go/no go decision by this time in May.
Harvard has a ton of money. They don’t care. All of those businesses in that area will go under though. If Penn state does this then you can buy a restaurant there for 10 bucks.
Interesting that the post about an Ivy League school is from a Cornell Professor of organic chemistry.
Mine too, fwiw. I failed it the first time I took it (dogged it) and then re-took it and it was great.
That ludicrous. School officials are meeting daily. BOT meetings more than once a week to discuss all contingency. You don’t throw in the towel this soon without real information. The schools want kids on campus. The kids want to be on campus. You do everything you can to make that happen.
As Tom said with an endowment like Harvard has they can get away with a lot more than a small school can. Plus their base is international where some schools around here are 90% three county area.
To not have plans would be awful. To make a ‘fake news’ headline presuming a decision is already made or imminent is just as awful.
Not silly at all. These schools have many constituents including students and faculty to inform and give consideration for in their planning.
They have contracts and commitments to thousands of staff, administrators, vendors, and the people in the communities they are located.
These schools, at least the responsible ones, can’t wait until a short time before a scheduled opening and undo things without significant costs.
These are not church picnics and golf outings that we are discussing. They are, in some cases, billion dollar enterprises.
Penn State will be back on campus for summer 2. Give it a little time to bake in, modified tuition for Maymester and Summer 1 will get everyone’s attention. Add in the possible litigation of fall semester rent for off campus housing students and the University will not go with an online solution. The world is about risk mitigation not elimination. Its time to put on our adult pants and move onward.
Tom,
Understand what you posted, however in a grad school conversation this week we were told Maymester and Summer1 would be online but summer2 was still a possible open. Perhaps this is being used as a dress rehearsal for return to normal of the fall semester.
Understand what you posted, however in a grad school conversation this week we were told Maymester and Summer1 would be online but summer2 was still a possible open. Perhaps this is being used as a dress rehearsal for return to normal of the fall semester.
If penn state does this, you’ll be over paying at $10. We’ll all be cleaning out the barns. Critters will be taking over the town. Nittany Lions may even return.
Well we shut down whole state’s in a day and some states will have days only when word is given to reopen. I’m sure 45 days would Be enough for psu if word comes july 1. That should give the slow moving bureaucrats at psu to get going.
What are schools doing with graduate research labs? Are they universally open? Open on a case-by-case basis (e.g., if deemed “essential” research)? I obtained my Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1997, and I can’t imagine my lab having been shut down for an extended period. My research advisor would have had a conniption.
Research deemed essential (I do not know what research falls within that category) is still on-going on campus. All non-essential research was shutdown.
I find it hard to believe by September there is going to be large gatherings or the potential of large gatherings. Schools will be closed and only online for the 2020-2021 year, especially if the they think a second wave is likely.
So you are saying the whole school year, to include next spring will be online?
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