Q: Help! My kid is supposed to start or return to college in the fall. Will colleges even be open? Our family isn’t that excited about Zoom U.
A: Very few colleges have announced firm plans; many more plan to do so by mid-June or early July. Figuring how to safely re-open is a daunting task with huge uncertainties.
This a big question on the minds of current high school seniors and their families. Unless you applied Early Decision, your due date to commit to a college is probably next week: May 1, National Decision Day. With so much uncertainty about what the next academic year looks like, students and their families are having to make big, expensive decisions with little information.
What are some of the options schools are considering? The main scenarios are:
1. Open for in-person instruction with changes to campus life to accommodate COVID-19.
2. Postpone the start of fall semester by weeks or months.
3. Plan for online/remote instruction in Fall 2020, and re-open on campus for Spring 2021.
4. Cancel fall semester (no remote instruction), and run a full academic year from January-August 2020.
These all have obvious trade-offs in terms of feasibility, flexibility, educational experience, and finances. Most schools seem to want to avoid Option #3 (more Zoom U) at all costs. Macalester College in MN has said that remote instructions is their “last resort” option. On the other hand, Cal State Fullerton has already announced plans to at least start the Fall semester remotely.
Purdue University’s president Mitch Daniels made a bold announcement this week that Purdue would re-open with in-person instruction and on-campus living, “determined not to surrender helplessly to [the pandemic’s] difficulties but to tackle and manage them aggressively and creatively.”
And speaking of creative: Beloit College is proceeding with plans for a “modular” semester, with 2 half-semester modules during which students will take 2 full-credit courses (rather than 4 courses over a 15-week period). We’re likely to see more creative and hybrid solutions announced in the coming weeks.
If your college announces plans to re-open in the Fall and you’re wondering how that will work, and whether you (or your kid) will be safe, here are 6 questions to ask the administration:
1. What measures are in place to accomplish physical distancing in dorms, dining services, athletics, and classrooms?
2. What type (diagnostic vs. serological) and level (tests per day) of testing will be done on campus, and is that capacity in place now?
3. What provisions have been made for isolating cases, tracing contacts, and quarantining possible cases or exposed individuals? For example, has a dorm or hotel been designated for isolation & quarantine (ideal), or will students be expected to isolate/quarantine in their existing living arrangements (yikes!)?
4. How are more vulnerable members of the campus community being protected? (This includes all those over 60 and those with underlying conditions or compromised immunity).
5. Will the campus be open to visitors, for example, for conferences, admissions events, athletics events? Will visitors be screened in any way?
6. Finally, how will a decision be made to close campus again if cases increase? What indicators or metrics will the campus use to decide that it is not safe to remain open, and how will those metrics be collected and communicated?
The link below lists Fall 2020 plans from college campuses that have announced them.
