Cornell University is teaching most Classes in person with frequent testing for coronavirus.
Colleges that reopened their campuses in fall report no evidence in-person classes spread coronavirus “in any significant way in classrooms, laboratories and lecture halls,” write Nick Anderson and Susan Svrluga in the Washington Post.
“What’s utterly clear is that we have no evidence of transmission inside the classroom,” said Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, which invited all students to its Nashville campus and provided a large share of classes face to face. He said dormitories at the 13,000-Student school also weathered the challenge.
On campus, students followed safety rules and avoided infection. Students living off campus and going to off-campus parties were less careful, putting themselves and others at risk.
“About 37 percent of four-year schools taught fully or primarily online in the fall, according to the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College, and 34 percent taught fully or primarily in person,” write Anderson and Svrluga. The rest did a little of both.
Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University, calls the decision to teach in person a success. The “safest place” in the county was a Purdue classroom, he believes.
From August through early December, Purdue conducted more than 84,000 viral tests, with 3,121 students and 341 employees testing positive. There were seven hospitalizations and no deaths. “We had zero — zero — infections occur in any of our classrooms,” Daniels said.
. . . More than 800 plexiglass barriers were deployed in classrooms, 2,600 hand sanitizer stations were installed, and many thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment were distributed..
Purdue is giving faculty and non-executive staff members $750 each as a bonus for their work during the last semester.
Cornell, which has 24,000 students, argues that teaching in person protected the community. Surveys showed many students planned to live in Ithaca for the school year, even if classes were all online.
The university worried students would be far less likely to follow safety protocols if they did not have classes on campus.
So the university launched a robust testing program, converting a laboratory used for animal diagnostics into one that could process tens of thousands of viral tests a week. . . . Undergraduates were tested twice a week in a process designed to be easy and fast.
. . . Mostly the daily case count among students ranged from single digits to zero. In all, 154 students positive after the semester began Sept. 3.
Coronavirus cases doubled in college towns, while rising by 58 percent in the rest of the nation, report Danielle Ivory, Robert Gebeloff and Sarah Mervosh in the New York Times. Again, concentrating young people off campus is the key risk factor.
Caseloads “exploded” in September, when Michigan State students returned to Ingham County, says health officer Linda Vail. Most classes had moved online, but “tens of thousands of students returned to the area, many renting off-campus housing,” notes the Times.
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