Actual news from UofM Housing
Word from a friend who has a kid at UofM is that all winter semester dorm/housing contracts are being canceled. The new housing situation will be all rooms are single-occupant only. If the student has a good option for living off-campus, they should. Students will have to apply for a dorm room and preference will be given to those who need to be on campus for health and safety reasons, required aspects of their curricula, or other extraordinary, extenuating circumstances.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
My district basically has gone from “If” to “when” in regards to going fully remote again.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
Here in El Paso, we’ve had a few weeks of 1000+ daily cases (1900 the other day), and we are going to fully open our school system on Monday. I worry we are the herd immunity guinea pig, at about 9% of the city currently with the virus or having recovered.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
We have been hybrid so we have about 600-650 students daily (half the population). We have gone now 16 days straight with a confirmed case.
Only one staff member has had a positive case and it was traced to a super spread family reunion indoor party.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
Yep, just got my Schlissel email update and there were three points for the winter term plan. The one you mentioned about housing density, “only courses that must be taught in person will be delivered that way”, and “major increases in asymptotic testing that will be mandatory for some and easier to access for many individuals in the campus community”.
November 6th, 2020 at 3:29 PM ^
you just made me flash back to freshman year calc. I hated asymptotes.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
Man I can't imagine my four years in AA being disrupted like this. Feel bad for those kids.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:28 PM ^
Agreed, best time of one's life and it is so short. Fuck this pandemic.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:24 PM ^
Best time? It was lots of fun and I look back upon it fondly. I'm glad I was able to go there.
But, I wouldn't trade any other four-year interval of my life since then for that one. Not kidding. (I'm middle-aged.)
If those are the best of years of someone's life I'd suggest that they didn't have any personal growth (through whatever route ... work, family, etc.).
Anyway, agreed on the pandemic. If I had a kid in college right now I'd feel bad for him/her.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
Best years for me, too. And nothing to do with drugs, booze, or sex.
Every stage of life has its appeal, and no I wouldn’t necessarily want to “go back.” But those years of personal growth and making friends are unbeatable. Covid sucks, indeed.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
I was an engineering student for five years at Michigan. It was a hard fucking slog, and though I had a lot of fun, I was constantly filled with doubt and anxiety from my schoolwork.
They were not the best years of my life. My life has improved dramatically since then.
November 6th, 2020 at 6:09 PM ^
I was a PoliSci student for six years and it was a blast (jk)!
November 6th, 2020 at 12:34 PM ^
The kids who took a gap year had the right idea. Easily half of the value of my money spent at Michigan came from aspects of student life outside the classroom. If I had a kid there I'd pull him or her out and would only go back in the fall if they completely restore the university experience.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:11 PM ^
It honestly and totally just... depends. The big upshot for those who proceeded is that they'll beat the others who delayed to the market, whereas those who waited will be part of a bigger bulge that hits the market. I'm an excessively glass half full person, though, and I see major upshots for both; just different things.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:40 PM ^
Glass half full? With insider information on orange futures maybe
November 6th, 2020 at 5:51 PM ^
While I agree, it's been a disruption for students, last week's Washtenaw County data attributed 61% of the Covid cases in the County to the University of Michigan. As someone who is an older adult living in Ann Arbor, and after noticing many students out and about with no masks, it's a little hard to be totally sympathetic.
Most of the Covid cases the students get will be minor; for many older folks, professors, people with comorbidities, etc. getting infected with the virus will be much more problematic.
For many of us, it appears that Mark S S as he captioned the email I received today has made many bad decisions driven solely by money.
That infections aren't running rampant among football players is a minor miracle.
November 8th, 2020 at 9:08 PM ^
"driven solely by money"
I'm not sure I agree with you on this. But as a point of principle, I hope people realize that decisions about "money" are not about personal greed. Money is what you need to hopefully not lay off 850 people like UMass did. To not cut library collections by over $2M like Penn State did. To not cut programs or courses that would lengthen student's time to degree. That kind of thing. When the administration worries about money, it's because they feel a stewardship to protect UM's greatest assets (its people) and other assets like collections and programs and initiatives that make UM what it is. They're trying to preserve UM for what it is.
I completely get that many people believe that the health and safety risks around the pandemic are so great that there are only a few appropriate paths forward, and that considering any fiscal factors in decision-making in this climate will always be inappropriate. I understand that. I'm not arguing that money is more important that life. Just trying to make the point that budget decisions aren't about avarice.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
There are now doing mandatory weekly testing for students who chose to remain on-campus and "Students returning to campus in the winter will encounter a strict, no-tolerance approach to enforcing COVID-19-related policies," the university said in its announcement. "Depending on the violation, penalties will include automatic probation, university housing contract termination, and removing university recognition for student organizations hosting or participating in social gatherings."
Glad they changed course from Schlissel's remarkably blase attitude in the summer into early fall, but this is all stuff UM should have done starting in August. If they had, the outbreak in October could have been lessened, if not prevented, and then perhaps they would have had more confidence in having a more fully in-person (though mostly online) winter semester.
But nope.
Feel bad for all those students, especially the seniors.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:27 PM ^
"Glad they changed course from Schlissel's remarkably blase attitude in the summer into early fall, but this is all stuff UM should have done starting in August. If they had, the outbreak in October could have been lessened, if not prevented."
You DO know that most if not all of the issues occurring have zero to do with how the school itself approached things, right? Off-campus parties, bar attendance, pretty much ANYTHING EXCEPT the students on campus.
But keep going with the 'everyone did it wrong, but if I were in charge' narrative you keep playing.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:33 PM ^
+1
"But keep going with the 'everyone did it wrong, but if I were in charge' narrative you keep playing."
But good look playing that game on this board. By its very nature these are Monday morning quarterbacks.
I just got off the phone with an alumnus who has a son there and he is livid. His buddy from California is bringing his daughter back home and putting her in community college. They've committed to one-year leases on apartments and $30K+ in tuition for this dog shit. Either play school, or don't play school. This half-ass shit is a money grab and they'll keep doing it until people vote with their pocketbooks.
November 6th, 2020 at 6:06 PM ^
What? I was far from alone in calling out, at the time, how wrong Schlissel was in his approach. Reading this Daily interview made it obvious in August. His approach was treat the students as "adults" and there is no need to test that much. Too hands-off.
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/administration/schlissel-interview-2
And as the dashboard showed, there were hundred of cases on campus; Mary Markley had a quarantine order just for itself, and South and West Quad weren't far behind! Of course, there were hundred of off-campus cases, too, but it was all over the place. That was the problem.
All the stuff mentioned -- asymptomatic mandatory testing; strict, progressive punishments for violating rules; much higher testing levels -- should have been done in August. Go look at Cornell -- they are testing all students twice a week. Cornell has done over 800,000 tests; UM has checked in with not even a tenth of that for a much bigger population.
It's not a coincidence they still have a hybrid schedule (i.e., what Michigan was attempting to do) and aren't kicking everyone out of town. They actually planned during the summer and executed during the fall, while UM scrambled to catch up, and couldn't.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/02/what-counts-success-when-it-comes-containing-covid
November 7th, 2020 at 6:56 AM ^
Ah yes, the great Michigan Dashboard, where it was conveniently forgotten to include in the numbers Covid cases where tests were done outside the University. When someone raised this little fact and real data was posted, the numbers spiked.
That Michigan did no periodic testing of its entire student body was another convenient means of putting one's head in the sand. Schlissel's money grab and the manner in which it was implemented suggests he is not capable of running this University.
November 6th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
Here's the thing I recall during my time as a student:
The dorms were full and off-campus housing was pretty much, too. This policy will reduce dorm capacity to, what, 33%? 25%? Where exactly off-campus are the others going to live? Livonia?
November 6th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
Going to be a lot of students that go home from off campus housing and want to sublet their apartments to people displaced from the dorms
November 6th, 2020 at 1:13 PM ^
Probably... their parents' house, to be honest. Or Barbados. Or on a mountain top. Or in the woods. The point is, the whole idea of what "campus" means just changed this year. It is, however, an undeniable DE&I issue for those who don't have any of those options. I'm disappointed that there wasn't an overt need-based consideration listed for the consideration of who gets to be on campus.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:44 PM ^
I mean, if I was in college right now and we went remote, I would probably be looking for a house to rent for the semester at a spring break location.
Airbnb's are cheap in Arizona and other warm places, find a handful of friends that are willing to pay < $1000/month and you can probably rent a nice place with a pool. Still able to party with your friends in quarantine, and can stream your classes poolside with a beer.
You could even mix it up, 1 month at some place warm, 1 month in the mountains to ski/snowboard (assuming they stay open), 1 month camping somewhere. Students should take advantage of this semester being different, not be bored at home with their parents.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
Well said... There was a good NY Times article about college students doing stuff along these lines. Seems like the way to go, if being at home with parents doesn't appeal:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/us/coronavirus-college-housing-legionella.html
November 6th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
Someone pointed to me to that piece a while back and I thought about posting it here.
On-topic: Salt Lake City offers the mountain-state experience on a budget.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:04 PM ^
Sounds like a great business plan to set students up in something like this.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:13 PM ^
Absolutely, and I've seen a good number of my own clients do this. Professionally we are going to see this massive transition from "life that fits our work" to "work that fits our life", and that is starting with students making decisions like this.
November 6th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
Could you afford that when you were a college student? If so, good for you.
If I'm a parent, there's no way in hell I would financially support that. Plus, with all those distractions, the learning would almost assuredly slip.
November 6th, 2020 at 7:22 PM ^
I think you could EASILY argue that there are LESS distractions in those situations.
November 8th, 2020 at 9:17 PM ^
FWIW I am told that there was substantial discussion about making a student's aid status one of the explicit qualifying conditions. They decided against it.
If students have a high need they may very well have a good case for why they need to stay which they can make in the application. Maybe it's a financial hardship to move home midyear, maybe their Wifi at home is terrible, maybe they don't have a good learning environment at home because they don't have their own room/desk, etc.
If they truly want to de-densify the residence halls, it's problematic to give any group an automatic qualification to stay, because even those within that group who could easily move might stay, eliminating options for others who need to stay.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:50 PM ^
What I took from this is that, unless you have a reason to be on or near campus, you shouldn't be. Which I'm guessing means that most Freshman and Sophomores will and should be remote learning as they have the least amount of specialized classes as opposed to Juniors and Seniors. I would venture a guess that 90% of the dorm space is occupied by Freshman and Sophomores. Not that any of this is easy, but I think it would easier for Freshman and Sophomores to relocate and go remote than Juniors and Seniors. Just my two cents....
November 6th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
What a shit show. Universities care about money first and students, education, and safety second
November 6th, 2020 at 1:14 PM ^
This is simultaneously true and not true. It's such a weird paradox.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
Lol you're right
November 6th, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
Schrodinger's Campus?
November 6th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
I'd have to assume this is going to do a number on off-campus housing pricing.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
The students in the dorms were headed somewhere after Thanksgiving for a month+. I assume they just stay there, now. My friend got to enjoy his new man cave for all of 3 months.
November 6th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
It's a mess. I feel for the students.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:45 PM ^
fk'n crazy.... my kid is a junior at a small catholic university (4,500 students), they've only got two and a half weeks left, have been in person all semester and have had no issues at all.
my better 1/2's son is a freshman at a state school with enrollment of about 6,000. they were all remote for the fall, but are planning to do hybrid in the spring, 1/2 in person and 1/2 remote.
November 6th, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^
Does he know Ferris Buellers status?
November 6th, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^
Need clarity. Have a freshman grandson living in a dorm currently. Is there an option to somehow snag a single for next semester and continue remote classes? Or are dorms all closed leaving only off campus. Hoping he returns home in 2 weeks and stays but I’m out of the loop. Thankfully.
November 7th, 2020 at 12:27 AM ^
Need a sublet for 4 students from January-august. Needs to be near central campus.