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MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

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

#461

Post by onion2k »

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?

What would happen if students stayed and then got ill? Are you suggesting that they carry on going to restaurants? How would they eat if they couldn't?

You're only considering the best case scenario of people not getting ill. That's not good enough. Sending people home is as much about planning for the future issues as it is about dealing with the current issues.

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

#462

Post by anticensor »

colechristensen wrote: post #11
JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

A university education is not a SaaS product. We are getting to the point where lectures should be mandated to be recorded and put into the public domain, and the University's value proposition in admission, tuition, and residence should be the everything else involved which could raise the focus away from re-doing the same lectures over and over.

> lectures should be mandated to be recorded and put into the public domain

Some minor student issues that can be tolerated when lecture is not recorded, will be completely unsuitable in recording.

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

#463

Post by akhilcacharya »

kyeb wrote: post #219
CydeWeys wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of fast food places/corner stores/restaurants/groceries in Cambridge within walking distance of MIT dorms. So the "no way to eat" part is a bit dramatic.

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.

Just go to Brothers, it’s right on Broadway.

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

#465

Post by [deleted] »

kopochameleon wrote: post #391
gevz wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure about mit schedule, but at Harvard, which announced same measures earlier today, the students has to vacate dorm rooms at the end of the academic year anyway. This happens at the end of April. So essentially Harvard is asking students to move out 6 weeks before the end of the year. One of those weeks is spring break. I’m sure students are in shock and there is a lot of chaos on campus. But according to w…

Agreed it is a bit disturbing how seemingly lightly K12 schools have been treating cases, which is possibly an indication of how lightly they will treat impending local outbreaks like that in Cambridge. I get there are fierce arguments on the side of keeping them open, NYC schools for example pointed to their free- and reduced-lunch program as why they can't close or go remote, (& that students don't have computers a…

[deleted]

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

#466

Post by akhilcacharya »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #247
saagarjha wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s interesting that private schools made this decision earlier.

Cynically, I wonder how big a role the fear of lawsuits is playing. Private institutions might be more sensitive to that possibility than state-run schools.

They also have more resources than most state run schools.

Which reinforces my original thesis

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

#467

Post by akhilcacharya »

WalterBright wrote: post #196
samatman wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the value of an elite education is signaling: it proves the student had what it takes both to get into MIT, and to graduate. If MIT switched to an online-only format, that would erode the value of the latter (which, remember, is social proof, not something which is notoriously rational), while open enrollment would obliterate the former. A semester of remote teaching won't damage the brand.

> Most of the value of an elite education is signaling Not in my case (Caltech). It was clear when I got an industry job that a BS from Caltech was at about the same level as an MS from other institutions. But if the institution is large enough, one can get an elite education by careful selection of the classes and professors, and doing the maximum in those classes rather than just getting by. For example, take honor…

Yikes, I wonder what you think of people like me that couldnt get an elite education.

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

#468

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

secstate wrote: post #370
protomyth wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US colleges earn money off the meal plan and tend to be liability shy so having a full kitchen is a non-starter. Heck, it was against the rules to have a microwave in dorms (even room not in actual dorms) where I went to college. It was a pain in the butt.

Pretty sure the ban on microwaves was an electrical fire risk, not them being predatory about students eating at the dining hall. Can you imagine if even every other room had an appliance pulling 1000W whenever the hell a student felt like warming up some soup?

>Can you imagine if even every other room had an appliance pulling 1000W whenever the hell a student felt like warming up some soup?

Can you imagine if even every other room had an appliance pulling 1000W whenever the hell a student felt like blowdrying their hair after their shower?

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

#469

Post by kelnos »

narak wrote: post #10
neets wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't undergraduate ivy league programs more about signaling status than actually becoming educated?

MIT isn't ivy league and probably the least 'about signaling' school in the US...

MIT may not signal the same thing that an Ivy does, but it certainly signals something, and the faculty, staff, students, and graduates are certainly aware of and use that.

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

#470

Post by watwut »

zamfi wrote: post #445
allovernow wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right about that. Children are practically immune. As I understand this has to do with innate vs acquired immunity. Children are born with very strong innate immunity and as we age innate immunity decreases while acquired immunity increases, untill old age where both decline.

Huh, interesting hypothesis. But I wonder why flu hits very young children so hard, then? Is SARS-CoV-2 more handily defeated by the innate system than flu?

New born child immune system is pretty weak. But from what I gathered, coronavirus deaths are all about pneumonia and lungs. Old peoples lungs are damaged due to being used for years.
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