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Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

stanforddaily.com

41–50 of 482 posts

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#41

Let the college kids get sick. They are extremely unlikely to have any serious effects from covid. At least on a college campus they won’t infect older family members. Herd immunity on campus would be reached very quickly. The few with serious preexisting conditions can stay home until that happens. The level of fear is frankly ridiculous. People get sick and people die. One day, we will all die. That is the human co…

Even Cuomo mentioned in April that closing down colleges and having students return to live with, in some case, elderly relatives, may not have been the best public health policy.

Is the policy is to have 0 death and to ignore the damage from lockdown? Then yeah its not the best policy.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#42
post #23

I firmly think there is a sea change going on from standard “college” degrees to more practical training that will be a mix of apprenticeship and solid training like air/vac, electricians and online skills, since the vast majority of jobs don’t really need a college degree. This has actually begun already at the high school level. Once again I believe net/net the beer virus will be positive for America in the long ru…

No one is deciding to work a trade instead of going to Stanford.

Do you not see programming as a trade? Do you not see accounting as a trade? Nursing? Medicine? Law? Pharmacology? I would consider all of those “trades.”

The non-trade courses of study aren’t particularly popular with college students anymore. I don’t know many people with degrees in english or latin or history or philosophy. And the few that I do always planned to go to trade school (law school) so their undergrad course of study didn’t much matter.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#43
post #32

I firmly think there is a sea change going on from standard “college” degrees to more practical training that will be a mix of apprenticeship and solid training like air/vac, electricians and online skills, since the vast majority of jobs don’t really need a college degree. This has actually begun already at the high school level. Once again I believe net/net the beer virus will be positive for America in the long ru…

Somewhat different take. The student debt problem is not really related to the college format. The format existed in earlier decades, exists in other countries and exists in K-12 education without runaway costs and student debt. It's mostly a matter of policy. The US' method to expand third level education to most of the population was by government backed and/or subsidized loans, without price controls. This caused…

Governments both state and federal could provide incentives for low cost trade schools if they wanted to. What is to stop them from granting favorable loan interest or even forgiving the loans like they do for the peace corp?

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#44

Meanwhile, my alma mater is still resuming in person. I wonder what the difference is... [0]: https://abc11.com/coronavirus-classes-nc-state-college/63640...

The difference is the state government. Stanford doesn't exactly oppose the state's guidance, but I think their announcement makes it clear that they would have opened the campus if the state guidance had been a bit less strict.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#45
post #9

My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.

Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now.

This is the whole reason schools want students back. They’re desperate to recover some of this cash flow. They have huge budgets and vast numbers of administrative staff to pay. Without the revenue from residence leases and meal plans, they’re in real trouble.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#46
post #13
post #9

My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.

It's absurd here in my state as well. We have peak number of cases in one of the biggest college towns, and students are moving in as we speak. I give it two or three weeks before we cancel everything again. As an aside, equally scummy are universities that pulled the rug from under students very close to move in. My sister got kicked out of her housing by the university a few days before move in, and basically had t…

> as rent prices near school nearly doubled overnight.

Wait is that really what happened? I anticipated that rent prices would drop because most students would just go home and there wouldn't be a market for people wanting to live in the college part of town.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#47
post #8

Meanwhile, my alma mater is still resuming in person. I wonder what the difference is... [0]: https://abc11.com/coronavirus-classes-nc-state-college/63640...

I lived in Cary for a long time and also attended NCSU for grad school. I've been following the conversation on related sub-reddits and it seems like the biggest concern is what students are doing when they're not on campus: parties, crowded gatherings down Hillsborough St, etc. Community spread will still happen ... just that campus activities will not be the main driver.

I'm a current student at NC State, and have been relatively satisfied with the University's planning and policies on paper...

That said, this is obviously a cash grab, and they're ignoring that students aren't going to follow their rules when they're off campus (Hillsborough St, parties, as you said above.)

I've already seen it happening... this isn't going to go well.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#48
It used to be the case that even if you took out massive student loans to attend elite schools, at least the in-person experience and networking opportunities would be worth it.

Now you don’t even get that. You get some bullshit online instruction that is little more than a glorified MOOC, and when you finally graduate, you have to compete for remote jobs with people from all across the country, and get outbid by people with the same skills as you but willing to work for peanuts because the cost of living in their area is practically negligible.

Meanwhile, you have to keep paying for that massive student loan for most of your life with cash flow that comes in well below your expectations, wrecking your ability to save money and making retirement a distant fantasy that is about as probable as the dreams people have of becoming multi-millionaires.

This should be an outrage, but no one will care. This will be the generation that takes it on the chin.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#49

Let the college kids get sick. They are extremely unlikely to have any serious effects from covid. At least on a college campus they won’t infect older family members. Herd immunity on campus would be reached very quickly. The few with serious preexisting conditions can stay home until that happens. The level of fear is frankly ridiculous. People get sick and people die. One day, we will all die. That is the human co…

This (over) reaction makes me worried about a real pandemic, should one ever come.

Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus

#50
post #45
post #9

My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.

Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. This is the whole reason schools want students back. They’re desperate to recover some of this cash flow. They have huge budgets and vast numbers of administrative staff to pay. Without the revenue from residence leases and meal plans, they’re in real trouble.

From all these, only mean plans money go to university? If they are signing leases, it suggests they live outside of university.
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