NYU’s Scott Galloway has a stark message:
“Our fumbling, incompetent response to the pandemic
continues. In six weeks, a key component of our society is in line to become
the next vector of contagion: higher education. Right now half of colleges and
universities plan to offer in-person classes, something resembling a normal
college experience, this fall. This cannot happen. In-person classes should be
minimal, ideally none.
The economic circumstances for many of these schools
are dire, and administrators will need imagination — and taxpayer dollars — to
avoid burning the village to save it. Per current plans, hundreds of colleges
will perish”.
As campuses reopen without adequate testing,
universities fault young people for a lack of personal responsibility.
“Despite serious public-health concerns, Tulane and
other campuses are slated to reopen for in-person instruction in the fall.
Students will get infected, and universities will rebuke them for it; campuses
will close, and students will be blamed for it. Relying on the self-control of
young adults, rather than deploying the public-health infrastructure needed to
control a disease that spreads easily among people who live, eat, study, and
socialize together, is not a safe reopening strategy—and yelling at students
for their dangerous behavior won’t help either”.
Opening Campuses Is Risky. The Alternative Is
Worse.
On some college campuses, a new fall rite:
Coronavirus testing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/college-campus-fall-covid-testing/2020/07/17/614f7160-c5f3-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html
How Should Colleges Reopen? There’s No Easy Answer
Colleges have frittered the summer away on
audacious and absurd reopening plans. It’s time to embrace remote learning
instead.