College towns fear super-spreader semester as students descend

[brooklynite]

Politico

Earlier this summer, students at the University of Virginia packed bars, rental houses, apartments and fraternity houses as part of Midsummers, a party and reunion tradition of students.

Watching the surge in large gatherings on social media and hearing from concerned residents prompted Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker to call UVA’s plan to bring students back to campus a “recipe for disaster.” At a virtual press conference, Walker said local officials had little power to control student behavior and that their only option would be to work with the university president and Gov. Ralph Northam.

“I, for one, do not understand why the students are coming back into the community from all over the globe and why we would take that chance,” Walker said. She said she was worried that once the students come and then leave, the city will be left “cleaning up the fallout.”

The university ended up delaying undergraduate in-person instruction and residence hall move-in dates by two weeks and scolded students for their recklessness. "If such behavior continues, we will not make it long into the fall semester before a significant outbreak occurs and we then need to send students home," Dean of Students Allen Groves wrote in a letter to students. "That's the self-interested motivation to do better."

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Geez, Who Didn't Believe A 2 Week Delay...

...would make everything completely safe?
Well, aside from anybody paying attention since February, that is.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Finally, an objective measure of the "best party schools"...

... in this country.

Unlike this subjective list from 2019, we just count the rate of infection traced to parties.

https://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-party-schools/

Ugh, trying to find some kind of humor in this mess.

[Freddie]

3. My niece is going back to the dorm

In 2 weeks at Bloomsburg (State) Univ. in PA. College officials said it’s ok because the number of cases in that rural county is very low. She’s a very cautious person and not a partier, but it’s still worrisome. This was originally supposed to be a semester in China but that went out the window back in January.