Albion College students restricted from leaving too far from campus

[Anselm]

https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-college-requires-students-stay-within-5-miles-campus-face-suspension-tracks-them-app-1525895

Well, at least it will be an interesting case study when this is all over.

[Caracal]

https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-college-requires-students-stay-within-5-miles-campus-face-suspension-tracks-them-app-1525895

Well, at least it will be an interesting case study when this is all over.

I know that Bowdoin, which I think only brought back freshman, isn't allowing them to leave campus.

[spork]

oops, posted in the wrong thread

[kaysixteen]

I caught the part about the college not springing this incarceratory policy on the young'uns till after their tuition checks had been cashed.   And the part about how faculty and staff are under no such big brother reqs.   One wonders how many students will be moving on after this semester.   Anyone know, further, how close Albion may be to earning a place on the coveted 'colleges in dire financial straits' thread?

[polly_mer]

I caught the part about the college not springing this incarceratory policy on the young'uns till after their tuition checks had been cashed.   And the part about how faculty and staff are under no such big brother reqs.   One wonders how many students will be moving on after this semester.   Anyone know, further, how close Albion may be to earning a place on the coveted 'colleges in dire financial straits' thread?

Spork's oops is that entry on the dire financial straits thread.

[apl68]

A student was quoted as saying:  "If the school believes masks work, why are we not allowed to leave if they work? It does not make sense to me."  Evidently the student thinks that masks make one invulnerable to catching the virus, rather than serving primarily to prevent oneself from spreading it to others.  I can see how they'd be worried about putting too much trust in students with those sorts of misconceptions. 

Part of me sympathizes with this policy, and part of me thinks that there's something disturbingly Orwellian about it.

[mamselle]

But if, at end of term, the whole campus is healthier, they might be grateful.

M.

[apl68]

A fellow staff member, who currently has a daughter in college (and heading back to campus this coming week) said that she didn't see why the students couldn't just avoid being tracked by leaving their phones in their dorm rooms.  Good point--assuming the students can bear to be parted from their phones for that long, figure out how to meet up someplace off-campus without using their phones to find each other, and can navigate to a location to gather miles away without their phones.  All of which can be done without phones, of course, but some of the students might be challenged to to find these non-phone-dependent means of doing stuff.

Come to think of it, trying to beat this policy just might prove an educational experience in itself.

[TreadingLife]

A fellow staff member, who currently has a daughter in college (and heading back to campus this coming week) said that she didn't see why the students couldn't just avoid being tracked by leaving their phones in their dorm rooms.  Good point--assuming the students can bear to be parted from their phones for that long, figure out how to meet up someplace off-campus without using their phones to find each other, and can navigate to a location to gather miles away without their phones.  All of which can be done without phones, of course, but some of the students might be challenged to to find these non-phone-dependent means of doing stuff.

Come to think of it, trying to beat this policy just might prove an educational experience in itself.

I'm sure one of their friends is rich enough to own a "burner" phone. But yes, that system is easily "hacked" by leaving the phone inside the perimeter.

I would love to see students try to navigate a paper map to get to the kegger. E3? What the hell does that mean? How do I hold this thing? It won't tell me when to turn!

[mamselle]

A fellow staff member, who currently has a daughter in college (and heading back to campus this coming week) said that she didn't see why the students couldn't just avoid being tracked by leaving their phones in their dorm rooms.  Good point--assuming the students can bear to be parted from their phones for that long, figure out how to meet up someplace off-campus without using their phones to find each other, and can navigate to a location to gather miles away without their phones.  All of which can be done without phones, of course, but some of the students might be challenged to to find these non-phone-dependent means of doing stuff.

Come to think of it, trying to beat this policy just might prove an educational experience in itself.

I'm sure one of their friends is rich enough to own a "burner" phone. But yes, that system is easily "hacked" by leaving the phone inside the perimeter.

I would love to see students try to navigate a paper map to get to the kegger. E3? What the hell does that mean? How do I hold this thing? It won't tell me when to turn!

Yes, I was thinking along the same lines.

Sort of an historical re-enactment educational experience....

M.

[TreadingLife]

Seriously! I can't recall how many times I walked long distances to get to a party only to find out that the keg was kicked.
Kids these days don't know how good they have it with texting/tweeting/ticking and tocking etc. I would have killed for that sort of advance warning system.

[kaysixteen]

As I read the article, the students are supposed to be required to have their app access at all times, which seems to imply they'll be required to carry the phone.  Or am I missing something?  This would be another reason that I suspect most of these kids will rebel, and depart for another school at their earliest opportunity.  I get that these policies may well be likely to limit the likelihood of a serious covid outbreak on campus (though that would be enhanced if faculty and staff had to comply as well), but students are not likely to notice this in January (how does one prove or disprove a negative statement 'we did not have a covid outbreak because of the tracking app policy'), but they will notice and greatly resent the prison-like conditions, more appropriate for a boarding school.

[Stockmann]

I'm sure one of their friends is rich enough to own a "burner" phone. But yes, that system is easily "hacked" by leaving the phone inside the perimeter.

Or they could just install the app on the burner phone and leave it in their room. There are probably more sophisticated ways of fooling the app, but it seems simple enough with two phones.

[Hibush]

As I read the article, the students are supposed to be required to have their app access at all times, which seems to imply they'll be required to carry the phone.  Or am I missing something?  This would be another reason that I suspect most of these kids will rebel, and depart for another school at their earliest opportunity.  I get that these policies may well be likely to limit the likelihood of a serious covid outbreak on campus (though that would be enhanced if faculty and staff had to comply as well), but students are not likely to notice this in January (how does one prove or disprove a negative statement 'we did not have a covid outbreak because of the tracking app policy'), but they will notice and greatly resent the prison-like conditions, more appropriate for a boarding school.

It seems worthwhile to change the mental attitude to seeing this as fortress-like conditions. Where they are protected from an attack.  If the messaging is about outbreaks at schools that fail to make similar restrictions, it can reinforce some solidarity around that. I also like Syracuse's message that a residential experience is a privileged one that, this year, they have to work together to have. That keeps the focus on what they get out of their restraint.

[polly_mer]

There's an option to frame the situation as being a cloistered, safe, learning community.  We all hang together to keep each other safe.


I alternately laugh and rage against the assertion that people being told to be slightly more restrained than how I normally live is somehow a horrible imposition that no one could possible be expected to do.  Well, I may never see my elderly relatives in person again and the local movie theater is now permanently closed because 'normal' people are refusing to believe germ theory and act appropriately.