Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
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Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#2Kept dorms open during Spanish flu but alas covid is n=1
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#3Kept dorms open during Spanish flu but alas covid is n=1
The flu (and news of the flu) spread much slower than COVID. The decision to keep dorms open was most likely made with limited information. To put this into perspective: many Harvard/MIT students didn't realize there was a deadly flu until they arrived on campus and were told to turn around. [0] Those students then had to alert any other students or travelers they met on their way home to also turn around. This propagation took a few weeks.
But lets entertain whether or not this was a good decision(it wasn't):
* Impromptu hospitals had to be arranged for at the A.T.O., Delt, Fiji and Theta Chi fraternities within weeks of the flu hitting Palo Alto. [1]
* Administration banned social gathering and unwarranted travel. Students were quarantined on campus and could not leave. Masks were compulsory everywhere on campus. Anyone not complying with the masks guidelines received a fine (this is somewhat less harsh than the police beatings in Boston/Cambridge).
* By October, it was considered a success that only around ten students died.
Meanwhile, not a singular undergraduate from MIT died on campus, and they continued their studies with an accelerated semester the following year. [2][3]
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Notes:
[0] I've edited this from "flu" to "deadly flu." Initially, a few colleges (MIT included) opted for delaying the semester a few weeks. This led students to believe the flu was not too serious, resulting in students being caught mid-travels before being told how deadly the flu really was. This led to a lot of confusion and the MIT President apologized sometime that Winter in a letter (and later in The Corporation's yearly report).
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Sources:
[1] https://news.stanford.edu/thedish/2018/03/15/100-years-ago-t...
[2] https://news.mit.edu/2020/3-questions-archivist-nora-murphy-...
[3] MIT Archives & Distinctive Collections
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#4Kept dorms open during Spanish flu but alas covid is n=1
The flu (and news of the flu) spread much slower than COVID. The decision to keep dorms open was most likely made with limited information. To put this into perspective: many Harvard/MIT students didn't realize there was a deadly flu until they arrived on campus and were told to turn around. [0] Those students then had to alert any other students or travelers they met on their way home to also turn around. This propa…
Wow, nice answer. I genuinely didn't know any of that. This is why I continue to read HN despite the somewhat horrifying partisan turn of a lot of these topics.
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#5Stanford frosh (freshman) here. What's disappointing about this is not _that_ they cancelled — most of my friends agree that it's the prudent thing to do — but that they waited so long to cancel. For context, classes start tomorrow [0]. One of my friends literally got the news about the cancellation when he landed in SFO yesterday.
Just a few weeks ago, they sent us an email reaffirming their plan to bring us back, yet COVID cases in California have remained relatively flat since then. It's unclear what specifically made them pull the plug. Maybe it was the 43 students testing positive. Maybe it was the rising cases in Santa Clara County. But nine months into the pandemic, it’s hard to see these as surprises.
Personally, I wish they did it two or three weeks ago. Or even a week ago. Or even last week. Just not the Saturday night before classes start. (We got this news yesterday.) The writing was on the wall the entire time — they could have saved everyone (including themselves) a lot of time and effort by just being realistic.
Oh well. Surely there are sides to this I'm not seeing.
[0] Classes do start tomorrow (Jan 11), but most students would move in around Jan 22. A small subset of students (RAs, international students, etc.) have been moving in over the past few days, and they won't be asked to leave.
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#6Kept dorms open during Spanish flu but alas covid is n=1
How are you covid conspiracy blatherers still active. What do you get out of this?
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#7Kept dorms open during Spanish flu but alas covid is n=1
The flu (and news of the flu) spread much slower than COVID. The decision to keep dorms open was most likely made with limited information. To put this into perspective: many Harvard/MIT students didn't realize there was a deadly flu until they arrived on campus and were told to turn around. [0] Those students then had to alert any other students or travelers they met on their way home to also turn around. This propa…
Another notable thing about the Spanish flu vs. today. Back then, they had no alternative. They could not deliver their service -- not even a fraction of it -- without having the campus open. Today this is largely not the case. Remote learning sucks but it is doable for most competent young adults.
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#8Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#9Stanford frosh (freshman) here. What's disappointing about this is not _that_ they cancelled — most of my friends agree that it's the prudent thing to do — but that they waited so long to cancel. For context, classes start tomorrow [0]. One of my friends literally got the news about the cancellation when he landed in SFO yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, they sent us an email reaffirming their plan to bring us back, y…
One factor they might have been considering: it does seem like these covid spikes reach a point, and then calm down. They might have hoped the top of the peak would have come earlier, and they might have been able to announce that it were safe to return. For example, if Cali had peaked a week ago, by the time y'all were set to move in, it would have been relatively safe.
Re: Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus
#10[deleted]