14 Days of ‘Enhanced Social Distancing’ Required of University of Michigan Students Before Return to Campus
Per Mlive, the title says it all.
Letter sent to returning students:
Didn’t MSU just tell their students to stay home if they can?
For some, yes. It’s a spectrum, they said most first-year students are going to have mostly (if not entirely) online courses this fall so they said if staying home makes you more comfortable then please do so. However for upper level undergrad and grad students (I’m starting an MBA program in the next few weeks) more than half of our courses will be at least a hybrid of in-person instruction and online.
I think the required testing of all students living In dorms is a big deal
granted, it’s safety theater if you don’t offer that to the entire community given how much interaction there is with rest of the school community
My initial reaction: Yeah, right (as much as I'd like to believe it could really happen).
Ryani Daye: Why is the whole school here?! What happened to ‘it’s just gonna be us and a few others.’
Frames Janklin: Why, not everyone from school is here. I didn’t get around to asking any of the freshman class.
Zero chance this works.
Signed - A UM academic staff member.
Schools have given in to the pressure. Now, we will go through people getting sick, disruption of classes, and sending everyone home just so we can say ‘we tried it’. Could have just said stay home and avoided the headache to come.
Rinse and repeat next year.
August 4th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
By next year we will hopefully at a minimum have much better testing and more therapeutic options. If any of these At home for under $5 testing kits pan out with reasonable accuracy it will make everything much more possible.
The guidance will keep getting more and more absurd as schools feel pressured to open.
And what will be the first thing students want to do after enhanced social distancing for 14 days and seeing their friends for the first time in a long time?
Well -- and forgive me, maybe this is medically dumb? -- but if everyone's through quarantine, that means they don't have it and it's safe-ish to be social? Like, my read on "bubbles" is that COVID can't magically appear, and if everyone passes through a quarantine successfully, you're much safer and that kind of less socially distanced activity is not nearly as bad as it would be otherwise, though not advisable?
(Sopwith or other MD's: am I a total moron on this stuff? Very possible!)
August 4th, 2020 at 11:05 AM ^
While this will reduce the new amount of covid that arrives on campus, there is only so much that can be done to create a bubble in a university setting with 10s of thousands of students, employees and non university members of the community.
With regards to the incoming students, it is far from a full quarantine. At a minimum, it is clear that some social action would be involved even in full compliance (stores and for many, a sizable journey to campus). Some (many?) will also not tightly adhere to the requirements. Even if they did, there is certainly already covid on campus.
That being said, there are really only three things the university can do:
1. reduce the introduction of significant additional covid on to campus. It appears that the university has determined that testing everyone when they get to the campus is not feasible. They appear to have settled on voluntary quarantines and partial testing.
2. Reducing spread on campus - once you’ve brought everyone back, there is only so much you can do.
3. Rigorous surveillance - seems like the plan is testing symptomatic and contact tracing. How successful it will be depends both on students adherence with #2 and how quickly they can turn around testing. If they can’t do it in less than 24 hours and they don’t get pretty good compliance with #2, all #1 will do is put off the inevitable for a little while longer.
Have sex. That's the first thing they'll want to do.
Hopefully only 2 people at a time.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:03 AM ^
So true...when I was 18 I would have risked getting Ebola for a few hours with my girlfriend.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:19 AM ^
I'm 43, and I'd still risk it.
What a goddamned shitshow.
It’s not possible to social distance during welcome week
August 4th, 2020 at 10:03 AM ^
"Welcome! Now stay where you are. For a while."
One one hand there is UM's well-intentioned COVID safety protocol. On the other hand there is party life at bars, frats, sororities, etc. The latter potentially corrupts and neutralizes the former in a flash.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:04 PM ^
Potentially?
With , what, approximately 75,000 students, faculty and staff it would be interesting to know what the compliance rate is-and at what level. What are the "rules of engagement" on campus going to be?
My son will be a freshman at a small liberal arts college in Minnesota in a few weeks. He got the guidelines for the phase they're in. Masks everywhere on campus except when alone with your roommate(s) in your own dorm room. If you go next door, you wear a mask. If you step into the hallway, you wear a mask. I said his biggest problem is that he won't know what any of the girls will look like.
He gives it 2 weeks before no one is wearing masks.
"I said his biggest problem is that he won't know what any of the girls will look like."
Could be a good thing.
August 4th, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
We're all beautiful in the dark... or behind a mask.
On the bright side, if the face is covered with a mask, literally nothing else is.
Fairly certain I'd be on my 4th marriage if we had stayed in Ann Arbor.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:31 AM ^
"On the bright side, if the face is covered with a mask, literally nothing else is."
Not sure it works that way. Where have you been on the interwebs?
August 4th, 2020 at 11:05 AM ^
Not the interwebs, a shopping mall and downtown A2. Women aren't wearing much this year and the braless / sheer top look is apparently in.
I need to get out more.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^
Its a fad type of move by the schools. They(universities) protect themselves by saying they installed rules and guidelines, and young people, most who show no signs of sickness even if they get it, will, like most everything else, forget all about it after a week or two.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
I'm sure college age girls will have thousands of selfies Junior can scroll through.
Everyone is kidding themselves if they think this going to work. Schools are opening for a day and closing the next. Another example.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:25 AM ^
This whole thing is a farce. Literally every decision maker is making plans with magical thinking.
My district is offering an online only option in addition to their plan for part time in person instruction. My guess is that most parents take the online option.
And that everyone is entirely online within a month once students, teachers, and administrators start testing positive.
Placing the responsibility of containing spread on students is incredibly reckless and also totally predictable. Can't wait for the "if they would have just maintained spacing!" rationale when everyone is inevitably sent home.
Are the people who tested positive already, allowed to stay? Asking for a friend... errr SE....., see...
August 4th, 2020 at 10:02 AM ^
So the university is telling the students that will be coming to Ann Arbor that they cannot go to work in those 14 days prior to arriving in Ann Arbor?! YEAH OK. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:24 AM ^
Last ditch efforts by Michigan hoping in any small way to get students back on campus.
Admirable.....but mistaken.
August 4th, 2020 at 11:10 AM ^
Good luck with that plan. How many students will adhere to this plan? Will it insure that insure that COVID won't spread? Not expecting any miracles.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:10 PM ^
If the classes are all online and they really aren't supposed to mix... even to the point of having assigned meal times... why go back? Is it only a cash grab?
August 4th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
In case anyone is curious how this compares to peer schools, here’s what is happening at IU in Bloomington. It’s copied from a message I recently wrote for my friends:
KEY VOCAB:
“Surveillance testing” – given to everyone no matter what – saliva collection assessed by BD antigen assay; results within 15 minutes – 100% paid by IU
“Symptomatic testing” – medically necessary testing for those with symptoms – nasopharyngeal swabbing assessed by PCR; results within 3 days – IU covers the balance after insurance
1. STALL THE VIRUS FROM ARRIVING
• Every student will be given a surveillance test (15 minute turnaround time) before returning to campus. No move-in or face-to-face attendance is permitted with a positive test. Students with a positive result must quarantine off-campus, generally by returning home. Later – to move in – they must return without symptoms after the illness fades and pass a follow-up test
2. MITIGATE COMMUNITY SPREAD
• Further Testing: IU will be giving EVERY student at least one surveillance test PER WEEK ... tentatively planned to run outdoors at the football stadium
• Further Testing: Anyone with symptoms will have access to a virtual hub (by browser or smart phone) connecting them to one of IU's symptomatic testing centers and instructions for isolation as they await results
• Contact Tracing: They’ve assembled a robust workforce of nurses for this
• Data Analysis Committees: Kind of meta, but essential for “stamping out embers” – daily analysis of campus, Monroe county and state-level COVID stats. Special attention on campus will be given to clouds of cases to help find problem areas to get ahead of social (noncompliance, e.g.) or building concerns (suboptimal HVAC, e.g.)
• PPE Disbursement: Every student is getting 3 cloth masks in the mail. Many building will also have surgical masks available during business hours
• PPE Mandate: Class for the day is cancelled immediately if a given attendee refuses to wear a mask. These events must be reported to IU. After two strikes, that student is suspended.
• PPE stipulations: Not all masks are acceptable. Masks with face valves are specifically prohibited in class as they allow unobstructed air to be freely exhaled for the protection of no one
• Quarantine Hotels: Ad hoc dormitories, with ~750 rooms, being used exclusively for isolation
• Complimentary Quarantine Hotel Services: Meal delivery, pharmacy delivery, laundry, I.T. support, mental health checks
• Who Quarantines: All cases (positively tested individuals) *and* their contacts (individuals having been at/within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes) – at the aforementioned dorms if they live on campus or in their own home if they live off-campus
• Mobile Response Units: Nurses to respond on campus, as necessary
• No Visitors (part policy; part recommendation): Including no visits for prospective students
• Smaller Stuff: Mandatory assigned seating will facilitate better contact tracing. These seating charts will not be public but will be shared with the IU administration and IU Health for tracing.
• Plan B is Ready: IU will go fully virtual if too many of their lights start switching red. Many variables. No rash decisions. “How is the full community doing?” An info graphic specifying what IU is watching and where they’ve set the “it’s getting scary” thresholds is shared as the first comment below
3. CONTINUALLY REACH EVERYONE FOR EDUCATION ABOUT NEW/OLD RISKS AND NEW/OLD TOOLS
• Weekly Webinars: One for students, one for faculty, and another for parents. Each will be an update and a Q&A.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^
And, yeah:
For tens of thousands of students, that will cost more than $1MM at move-in and at least that much every week after (when repeating the antigen testing for literally every student again and again and again) ... for as long as the campus stays open.
It's a breathtaking amount of money and planning. On the one hand, that's due to the sheer size of the school. On the other, it's a sobering reminder that in the COVID-era, wealthy institutions and poor institutions continue to exist in different realities.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:51 PM ^
Primary reference is this webinar to IU faculty. The webinar is delivered by IU’s medical administration and various COVID-prep committee members (video is open access):
This is stupid by IU. There is no way in heck they will be able to enforce any of this with 40k students and get any positive results. Just ... stay .... home.
It's a good step but...implementation is going to be inconsistent is my guess. But we'll see.
Omg..stop..this is joke..its political nonsense..the virus is real yes but we have ruined everything for a 99.9% survival rate..how many fricking studies and articles have to show this to make it stop..no one in college athletics is going to die you fricking asshats..wake up and use your brain..mental health and suicide will kill more than the virus guaranteed 100%..enough..
October 29th, 2020 at 10:40 PM ^
Even though social distancing is a must these days it's obvious that it damages the educational process. No wonder that students started visiting the Best Writers Online to find trustworthy writing services. They, students, just can't handle the current way of studying and it's totally understandable.