natetheskate wrote:
I thought Fauci used the words " a bridge too far" to open schools in the Fall
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspec ... ge-too-farThe specific quote from Fauci is that the vaccine/therapeutic by autumn is a bridge too far. What that means for schools, he kind of left that up to interpretation. So there very well may be no good decisions to be made, especially in higher education. College is obviously a voluntary activity; every student is an emancipated adult who in theory can live and make decisions on their own (although the job market is going to be ugly for a while). Keep in mind that it's no guarantee that these kids avoid contracting covid if they're staying home for the semester too, especially if they're in an area that's not under heavy lockdown, has bars and restaurants open, etc.
Also, in terms of students, you're dealing with a demographic that will be able to fight this thing off. If a slew of our undergraduate community gets the virus, while not ideal, would not be the end of the world from a medical perspective. If I were a 20 year old student, I would feel comfortable about my odds of beating this thing considering it kills about 1 in every 10,000 people under 40 and most young people who get covid are asymptomatic. If I were a 70 year old professor, I would probably either only teach my class online, take a sabbatical, or retire. The risk of seeing that many young people (not just in class but walking around campus too) every day would be too much to take.
In terms of opening schools though, even without a vaccine, it would be ludicrous for CPS to not open schools up in the fall. There is too much downsides in terms of economic considerations for lower income families, mental health, child development, etc. to keep them closed. Loyola for the most part doesn't have to deal with that, but leadership is still probably choosing the best of a ton of bad options. Even if we have a great online system, why would a student enroll for a semester online? If I'm a freshman this fall, I'm taking my core classes through University of Phoenix at a quarter of the price of Loyola and try to transfer them over. Thankfully we're not in a catastrophically terrible financial situation. There are plenty of smaller schools that are not going to survive this thing if dorm revenue, food hall revenue, etc. dries up.