It's time to end the consensual hallucination of fall in-person classes

[Vkw10]

My university has announced in-person commencement ceremonies. All December graduates will be part of virtual ceremony. May, August, and December 2020 graduates may also signup for the in-person commencement.

[wareagle]

We're doing a winter commencement ceremony in person as well.  However, attendance will be strictly limited to a handful of family members for each grad, and a small group of select faculty.  (I don't know if they're pulling names out of a hat, or going on the basis of seniority, or what....)  Plus the usual admin and dignitaries.

It will be held in a large arena where people can spread way out, and I'm hoping they're keeping it under an hour.  I'm not sure what to think.

[spork]

75-year old philosophy professor demands that he be allowed to teach online because he doesn't want "to be walking into a classroom right now":

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/10/professors-fight-face-face-spring-teaching-mandates.

[Puget]

I think we have good evidence now that in person classes *can* be done safely under the right circumstances:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/11/the-colleges-with-no-coronavirus/

The key ingredients:
Frequent testing of everyone + tracing
Lower density, especially in housing
Masks
Social distancing
Limiting interaction between campus and community (e.g., no visitors on campus, encouraging students to stay on campus)


Of course, not all institutions can feasibly do all this, but those that can are actually doing quite well in general. We are one of them: We've had only about 20 cases this semester (out of about 5000 individuals regularly being tested on campus), and more of those have actually been staff than students. There is no evidence that any transmission has occurred in our classrooms.

[the_geneticist]

We're going to finalize the schedule for Spring quarter 2021.  The person who sent out the email says that because the school hasn't officially said that we'll be online for Spring that we should "schedule classes assuming we'll be in person". 
Nope.
We'll schedule classes at set days and times, but there is no way we'll be allowed to put 24 students in a lab class or 500+ in a lecture hall in Spring.  The county is in the "purple zone/widespread outbreak" zone and it will take months to get back to a less risky zone, even if the number of cases starts to drop immediately. 
My money is on not having large, in-person classes until we can all be vaccinated.  I'd say Spring 2022 at the earliest.

[secundem_artem]

Artem U is back fully online as of tomorrow.  We did a great job in holding Covid off since the beginning of the term, but our governor has refused to implement any reasonable precautions and the disease is totally out of control now.  Students at Artem U are not the cause of this disaster.  It's Gov. Trump-lite in the Statehouse who is to blame.  Artem U did about as well as Puget's school.  If only our governor were as responsible as the 18-22 year olds I see (virtually) daily.

[AmLitHist]

My CC is taking most of the current F2F classes to synchronous/live virtual lecture (LVL) status starting next Monday.  F2F classes that must remain on campus will do so (begging the question, why were these others meeting F2F all this time? Hands-on art, lab sciences, and nursing clinicals, I get--those need to be on campus.  But sociology, English, and history sections? Why?)

Anyway......this is supposed to last "for several weeks after Thanksgiving" (there are only two weeks scheduled after the holiday, so..?), and we're repeating this fall's mostly online/LVL schedule for spring.

[spork]

My CC is taking most of the current F2F classes to synchronous/live virtual lecture (LVL) status starting next Monday.  F2F classes that must remain on campus will do so (begging the question, why were these others meeting F2F all this time? Hands-on art, lab sciences, and nursing clinicals, I get--those need to be on campus.  But sociology, English, and history sections? Why?)

Anyway......this is supposed to last "for several weeks after Thanksgiving" (there are only two weeks scheduled after the holiday, so..?), and we're repeating this fall's mostly online/LVL schedule for spring.

Because they had always met face to face in the past. No one thought to question whether this was the best use of finite resources. And probably at most colleges and universities, it still isn't being questioned.

[AmLitHist]

My CC is taking most of the current F2F classes to synchronous/live virtual lecture (LVL) status starting next Monday.  F2F classes that must remain on campus will do so (begging the question, why were these others meeting F2F all this time? Hands-on art, lab sciences, and nursing clinicals, I get--those need to be on campus.  But sociology, English, and history sections? Why?)

Anyway......this is supposed to last "for several weeks after Thanksgiving" (there are only two weeks scheduled after the holiday, so..?), and we're repeating this fall's mostly online/LVL schedule for spring.

Because they had always met face to face in the past. No one thought to question whether this was the best use of finite resources. And probably at most colleges and universities, it still isn't being questioned.

Possibly so.  I'm in English, though, and most of our sections are LVL or online.  I think part of it is our Admin, who are adamant that our students "must" have a F2F option--even though, this fall, those F2F classes weren't fully enrolled even at their lowered sizes of 1/3-1/2 the normal capacity.  Then again, our Admin--most of whom haven't taught in any form in over a decade, and NONE of whom have ever taught our students at this school--isn't shy about mandating various things because our students "require" them, whether that's really true or not.

[polly_mer]

The need to be face-to-face is showing up in a lot of the higher ed outlets I follow.

Some of that need is explained as genuine concern for the students who are not good candidates for online education.  These proponents of as much on campus as possible are often true believers in a learning community of shared experiences with formal classroom instruction possibly not even in the top five priorities of a four-year college experience.  Another recognizable subgroup are the folks at the community college/open enrollment sector where students are at high risk of not connecting to anyone and dropping out owing more money than they can pay back (for many students, that's under $5000).

Much of that need, though, is realizing the weak business case for online enrollment at their particular institution.  It's pretty clear that students will vote with their feet and tuition dollars for something they perceive as better, especially as the pandemic drags on.  Commuter students who just picked something close enough and cheap enough will reevaluate that choice when they can get better online at about the same cost and there is no in-person choice.

A non-negligible number of students want the residential experience enough that they will ignore the fall and still hope that spring will be almost normal.  Places that need those room and board dollars will justify planning for in-person as meeting the student needs.  After all, this isn't one of those immediately fatal pandemics  and <reasons related to education of people who want to be hoodwinked on this issue and are willing to pony up to be hoodwinked>.

If the competition for student enrollment is mostly on high-quality online education from a brand-name institution at reasonable cost, then a good many institutions that didn't invest substantial resources in the online experience in the past five-to-ten years are not going to enroll enough students to get through the pandemic.

In the recent past, one forumite asserted that his institution mainly got students from the region by being the closest institution and the lowest cost.  All the institutions with that business model should be panicking because that's not going to work as long as we're still under pandemic conditions, which is looking like another year or more.

[spork]

^ This explains why the business office and student affairs are in control of pandemic-related procedures and policies at my university instead of academic operations. We could have initiated a shift to a distinctive educational experience -- for example, some kind of low-res, high-engagement curriculum emphasizing lab and field research, internships, etc. Instead the focus is still trying to get students to live on campus for eight semesters. University leadership is still thinking that what worked in the past will work in the future, even though it hasn't worked for the last several years and definitely isn't working now.

[spork]

We could have started the semester early and finished by Thanksgiving. But no, we had to stick to the usual academic calendar. And now students have been informed that they must choose between staying on campus through Thanksgiving break and finishing the semester in-person, or going home for Thanksgiving and finishing the semester online. We already have anecdotal evidence of on-campus students connecting to classes remotely instead of attending in person. So my guess is that campus will empty out in the coming week as students get an early start on Thanksgiving vacation. Perhaps some have already packed up and left.

[polly_mer]

We could have started the semester early and finished by Thanksgiving. But no, we had to stick to the usual academic calendar. And now students have been informed that they must choose between staying on campus through Thanksgiving break and finishing the semester in-person, or going home for Thanksgiving and finishing the semester online. We already have anecdotal evidence of on-campus students connecting to classes remotely instead of attending in person. So my guess is that campus will empty out in the coming week as students get an early start on Thanksgiving vacation. Perhaps some have already packed up and left.

Who will be knocking on doors all during the Thanksgiving weekend to ensure that students are on campus instead of leaving and coming back?

Perhaps college administrators will continue to be shocked SHOCKED! to learn that people will conveniently not report themselves for rules violations when doing so will result in losing something those folks want.

[spork]

Michigan has ended in-person instruction at all schools, colleges, and universities for the next three weeks, which I assume is the remainder of classes for the fall semester.

[Cheerful]

We could have started the semester early and finished by Thanksgiving. But no, we had to stick to the usual academic calendar. And now students have been informed that they must choose between staying on campus through Thanksgiving break and finishing the semester in-person, or going home for Thanksgiving and finishing the semester online. We already have anecdotal evidence of on-campus students connecting to classes remotely instead of attending in person. So my guess is that campus will empty out in the coming week as students get an early start on Thanksgiving vacation. Perhaps some have already packed up and left.

Who will be knocking on doors all during the Thanksgiving weekend to ensure that students are on campus instead of leaving and coming back?

Perhaps college administrators will continue to be shocked SHOCKED! to learn that people will conveniently not report themselves for rules violations when doing so will result in losing something those folks want.

Logistically, how could they possibly force students to stay on campus?  Financial penalties in an effort to induce cooperation yet alienating your customer base?  Penalties for "rules violations" at many campuses have been weak or nonexistent.  Again, customer base.

^ This explains why the business office and student affairs are in control of pandemic-related procedures and policies at my university instead of academic operations.

Academics gradually gave up governance power to student affairs and other admin long ago.  Now, big consequences.  I can't specify here what's happened to faculty power and respect for faculty at my R1 in recent years.  It has been nothing short of dramatic.