Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

web.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 605 posts

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#261

Post by kelnos »

iokanuon wrote: post #205
kyeb wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In what way are dorms worse than personal homes for diseases anyway? Are they not trusting their students to prepare their own food? Why don't they just close the dining halls instead? The dorms have shared bathrooms, often shared rooms with doubles, triples, and quads, and shared living spaces (lounges, study rooms, laundry, etc.) in addition to the dining halls. Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way t…

>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?

There are certainly restaurants nearby, but not sure I'd call them cheap. I imagine a lot of MIT students don't have the money to eat out every day. And since most dorms don't have any kind of kitchens or cooking implements, buying food from the grocery and cooking isn't really an option. Pre-made meals or other things from grocery stores that don't require cooking could work, but, again, I'd expect some/many students rely on their university meal plan for their food, and don't have much spare money to buy their own.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#262

Post by perennate »

CydeWeys wrote: post #233
kyeb wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The closest grocery is Target in Central square, which is extremely limited or maybe Trader Joe's, which also isn't the same. The Star Market that was right behind campus closed a couple years ago. It's not so easy, in my opinion.

That Target is less than a mile from all of campus, and a quarter mile from the closest dorms. That's easy walking distance. What am I missing?

That Target barely has any groceries, it's a small general department store. But yeah there is Trader Joe's, H-Mart, and Whole Foods. Market Basket is a bit further but more like a real grocery.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#264

Post by fwipsy »

PureParadigm wrote: post #50

I think large decisive moves like this may seem to some to be an overreaction, but it will prove to be the correct decision in hindsight (like the early travel bans). Exponential growth is real, and anything we can do to slow the rate of infection will save lives. As a current undergrad at UC Berkeley, they've moved all classes here online [1], and exams are either being postponed or converted to take-home assignment…

So far, I've heard that UCSD, UCSC, UC Davis, and Stanford have taken similar precautions to Berkeley.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#265

Post by kelnos »

perennate wrote: post #259
nemothekid wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how much dining hall food costs or if it’s prepaid but you are talking about eating out for every meal on a students budget. The point about bringing up the dining hall is they can’t go to the grocery store because they have no way to cook (and maybe even store) the food they bought.

Ha, the prices are at [1], the cheapest is around $13 per meal. Eating out can be much cheaper, and there are healthy options. [1] https://studentlife.mit.edu/dining/residential-dining/meal-p...

Meal plans are typically pre-paid at the beginning of the semester. So that money is already gone, and I would expect that eating out for every meal -- even at below $13/meal -- would be out of reach for a lot of students.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#266

Post by MFLoon »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #52

I am skeptical of these things. I would have cancelled classes but left everyone in their dorms. All the travel is no good, and high density but young and healthy people (watch their health improve with no crushing amounts of homework!) I wouldn't expect to speed up an epidemic as long as they aren't traveling.

There's a multitude of good reasons to close the dorms. People are sharing bedrooms, common areas, bathrooms and kitchens with far more people than they would be in the average private domicile. The network effect of communal living, combined with the generally more lax sanitary/hygenic standards of a younger population, makes any dorm highly at risk for becoming a hotspot, of any infectious disease (and indeed it's quite common for colds, flus and even more serious diseases to cause epidemics in college dormitories).

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#267

Post by chrononaut »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #163
wegs wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an epidemiologist, but a Boston resident. Generally, people under 30 completely ignore anything about the coronavirus here. You have people hitting a different nightclub each night, going to parties, and that sort of thing. A college town full of students who see their risk as 0.1% is not what you want right now. Now, a more sensible thing might be to close the nightclubs, bars, and parties. But the city hasn't d…

So you have tens of thousands of people, who all have been in close proximity, now exposing their risk to their family. And if these college students have any elderly family members, that could pose a serious risk. By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be.

> By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be.

What situation are you referring to that would result in increased contact? This particular movement of students to a different location, often home? Or the long-term housing situation of the students throughout the rest of the semester?

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#268

Post by im3w1l »

Getting kicked out of their dorms is exactly the kind of stupidity I expect of the USA. "But they are at risk of being sued if they don't do this" It brings a smile to my face that the elite is getting caught up in the dysfunction this time. Because until they do, nothing changes.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#269

Post by glofish »

All lost in the upheaval is that you can't "just take" a course in a classroom and make it online - especially not on a two-three days notice.

Online courses are surprisingly difficult to get right.

Here is what I predict this ad-hoc online teaching will be like: professors will take their slides and put them on a webpage. There you have an online course.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#270

Post by jimmaswell »

CydeWeys wrote: post #235
throwaway5752 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIT has an office of the general counsel and a baker's dozen of high qualified and experienced attorneys (not including supporting staff). It is possible they are violating the law, but it's probably worth assuming they aren't and understanding why. It may be related to the MA governor declaring a state of emergency a couple of hours ago.

People are too quick to try to apply law governing private parties to governments and other similar institutions. Schools and universities can do a lot of things differently than, say, a private company can.

Why should they be above the law?
Post reply on HN